Mission
The Kokomo Children's Choir is a community choir open to children of all races and religions dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in choral music and dedicated to the development of the riches of talent and abilities dwelling in each child. The choir provides training in music reading, interpretation, and performance geared toward building independent musicians for a lifetime of musical enjoyment and achievement. It provides a unique opportunity for children of all backgrounds to work together toward a common goal that will build self-esteem, pride, and confidence.
Goals
- To enrich the lives of our children by learning great music by the world's greatest composers.
- To expose our children to cultures, languages and beliefs of other people in the world.
- To equip our children with the musical skills they need to be lifelong learners in music.
- To enrich the cultural life of our Kokomo community.
- To improve the singing in our area schools by providing training beyond that which can be offered by a school program.
- To promote musical excellence.
Background
In the fall of 1996, Laura Swartzendruber approached the Kokomo Symphonic Society with the idea of establishing a children's choir under the umbrella of the Symphonic Society. The idea was met with enthusiasm with the understanding that the children's Choir would provide its own funding. The choir was launched with a choir camp on June 9, 1997, with 120 children in attendance. During the first season, 76 children sang in the choir. They gave three concerts, sang in the Nutcracker Ballet, and hosted the Bulgarian Children's Choir.
On June 1, 1998, the choir became an independent, non-profit corporation, seating its own board of directors.