I Just have to crow a bit among some folks who will understand. This morning, our small (eight strong) but mighty Children’s Choir has its debut! This is my third year in this position and it’s been a long-term goal of mine to do this as soon as I had the bandwidth and support. I was also further encouraged to do it this year when the middle school began a youth program using the Life Teen model. We don’t currently have support for a Life Teen Mass from our pastor (thank goodness!), but I suspected that we’d start getting some pressure to “get the youth involved in Mass,” and it would be better to proactively have something in place.

We prepared Above the Clear Blue Sky and Lindley’s Ave Maria, and although we worked a bit
on Mawby’s Ps. 23 it was a bit too much of a challenge to work up in the time we had - we’ll come back to it. We also used the Full Voice series to explore some note reading and solfege, which I hope to build on. I worked with a few of the kids and had one lead the psalm, one (my daughter - nepotism FTW!) cantor the gospel acclamation, and a duo lead the sung response to the prayers of the faithful and they did splendidly. The kids all wore some red robes that had been stored in the sacristy for years (and I SWEAR they sang and behaved better wearing them - such a proud little group!) and I also recruited a high school singer in the parish to help sing with them and keep them on track.

The parents were so supportive and grateful, and the kids and I all got so much positive feedback fromthe parish after Mass. it was such a gratifying experience!

So, now we prepare for Christmas Eve. I’d like be to hear a bit about what has worked in your own parishes for youth choirs!