About this Artist
The GRAMMY® Award-winning National Children’s Chorus, under the leadership of Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer and Associate Artistic Director Dr. Pamela Blackstone, has quickly become one of the world’s leading children’s choirs. Among the most exciting and fastest-growing music institutions for youth in the nation, the chorus provides its unparalleled training to talented singers locally and abroad, with more than 35 choirs and 1,000 students based in the chapter cities of Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Boston and Chicago. Now in its second decade, the NCC’s groundbreaking Season 2022/23, entitled Resounding Voices, expands on the chorus’ recent success, featuring an array of special projects, demonstrating the organization’s firm commitment to eclectic programming, new music, world culture and extraordinary collaborations.
Performing locally and abroad, the National Children’s Chorus is one of few youth arts organizations in America to have its concert series presented by professional music halls, working with some of the finest conductors, composers, and orchestras from around the world. Students are represented by more than three hundred schools throughout its cities, and meet weekly for rehearsal and musicianship study. The extensive curriculum includes college-level conducting, composition, music theory, sight-singing in the Kodály Method, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and vocal training in the bel canto style. Through a holistic approach to cultivating the unique potential within each child, recent graduates from the program have gone on to be accepted at top institutions around the country.
Each summer, Senior Division ensembles of the National Children’s Chorus travel internationally, expanding the students’ cultural awareness and worldly experience. Since 2015, the children have performed at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford and St. John’s Smith Square in London, England; the Great Wall of China in Beijing and the Ancient City Wall in Xi’an, China; St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, and St. Cecilia’s Music Conservatory in Rome, Italy; the Berlin Wall in Germany and Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, as well as sites in Prague, Czech Republic and Budapest, Hungary; the Korean Demilitarized Zone, Mapo Art Center in Seoul, South Korea, and in Japan, Kyoto Concert Hall and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall; the Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, and other sites in Spain and Portugal. The National Children’s Chorus also hosts an annual summer opera camp in Vail, Colorado. The initiative, designed to engage young singers in the art of opera, serves to promote the creation of new operatic works written specifically for young voices.