Denton youth choir ends school year with concert that speaks to hearth, heart and togetherness

“She led this beautiful conversation with our kids that was very vulnerable and very open,” said Downey, whose day job is teaching music at Sandbrock Ranch Elementary School. “I started tearing up during the conversation, because kids were talking about ways that they had been experiencing grief, and that they had been experiencing bullying. They have been experiencing isolation, and that they have been experiencing a sense of not belonging in other places in their life, whether it’s at home or at school or in different things that they’re a part of.”

As the students talked, Downey said they found a sense of belonging in the newly-formed children’s choir.

“We’re a group that not only prioritizes excellent musicianship, but connective and connected communities are just as important to us,” Downey said.

The youth choir is built around seven values: belongingness, social capital, agency, empowering identity, trust, continuity, and connective integration. Some of the values sound like 50-cent words that appear only in academia, but for Downey, the values add up to community.

“And I’m really proud of the fact that we built an entire framework required around that philosophy,” Downey said. “And not just that, but really what I’m proud of is the fact that I’ve seen and experienced that that has worked. Within a couple of months, at the beginning of the year, we had students having sleepovers. We had kids being friends on different video games online, hanging out with each other, wanting rehearsals to go longer and wanting our break to go longer so they could spend more time with each other. It was really beautiful that that happened.”

The community youth choir program will end its first season with a concert that celebrates the idea of home. The performance includes guest artists and a world premiere of a piece written expressly for the choir by TWU music theory professor and composer Paul Thomas.

Downey said Thomas met with the singers in person, and invited them to tell him what it means to them to be in the choir. He then invited them to express their thoughts in creative ways — poetry, quotes, songs, drawings or other ways. He took their ideas and used them to create the new piece of music. He named it “A Million Voices in One Voice.”

“It’s a stunning piece,” Downey said. “It’s going to be really special. Dr. Thomas is going to be there at the performance, so that’s something that I’m really excited about. I love that the kids got to contribute to this new composition that’s now in the choral repertoire.”

The students will perform three different sections. The first part of the program is about childhood and play. The second portion is about nature.

“We’re going to have a lot of really cool effects that we’re doing and the audience will get to participate in as well,” Downey said. “We’re going to do things like creating a storm. And then also we’re hearing about a bird flying through and things like that.”

The last section of the concert is songs of hope and home.

“My personal hope going into this concert and in the planning of the repertoire for it, was as a celebration for it, and the hope of moving forward. And I think those things are captured in there,” Downey said.

Denton Community Youth Choirs are open to third through eighth graders. As the year wraps up, Downey said there are about 19 singers, with most children coming from Denton ISD, Lake Dallas ISD and a few homeschool students.

Registration for the choirs will open in May, and families are invited to sign their children up. Auditions aren’t required, but choir leaders will listen to each child sing and talk with them about their musical interests.