Children’s Choir Invited to ACDA and Carnegie Hall

The acclaimed Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir (SVCC), now celebrating its twentieth year, has been invited to two prestigious events this year in addition to their regular choir season.

SVCC was selected for the Southern Division annual conference of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) to be held in Winston-Salem, North Carolina February 29-March 3. Attendees will be ACDA members—including teachers and professors—for whom choral music performance is a primary focus. Eighteen choirs were selected from one hundred community school, college, and professional choirs that applied; all choirs submitted recordings from the previous three years for a blind audition.

“The SVCC is privileged to be performing for the fourth time at this conference,” said Julia White, Artistic Director and Founder of SVCC. The SVCC has sung in past years  in Orlando, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., and Charleston, WVa.

In addition, the SVCC has been invited to sing at the Carnegie Hall Children’s Choir Festival, to be held in New York City in May.

Five to seven children’s choirs will rehearse May 23-26 together under the direction of Ruth Dwyer of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir with SVCC as the anchor choir.   The festival will conclude with a performance at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, May 26 at 8:30 pm.   Three days of rehearsals and a culminating performance will make the trip to New York a glorious ending to SVCC’s twentieth anniversary year.

This is the third time the SVCC has been invited to participate in the Carnegie Hall Children’s Choir Festival.

About the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir

The SVCC is part of the music department at Eastern Mennonite University.  The SVCC includes over 150 children in three auditioned choirs and two classes for young children, a staff of five and a rigorous performing and touring schedule.

The SVCC’s fifteenth compact disc entitled “Twenty Years of Song” was released October 15, 2011, to mark the twentieth anniversary year.  A compilation of the last two years of song repertoire, the CD includes both general music and Christmas selections.  The Preparatory, Treble, and Concert Choirs are featured separately and guests including the Sons of the Day, Washington Symphonic Brass, and guest musicians Nick Merillat and Pedro Aponte are featured.

For more information on SVCC or to order a compact disc visit  www.emu.edu/svcc, email svcc@emu.edu or call Yvette Peake, Choir Manager at 540-432-4650.

Compact discs can be found at the following retail stores:

Harrisonburg:  Barnes & Noble, All Things Virginia, Williamson Hughes Pharmacy, EMU Bookstore, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community Main Street Store, Park View Pharmacy, Rocktown Gift Shop

Dayton:  Silver Lake Mill, Crafty Hands

Bridgewater:  Tis the Season

Staunton:  Turtle Lane

Woodstock:  Woodstock Cafe & Shoppes

Winchester: Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

Waynesboro:  Stone Soup Bookstore