In July 2009, the Denver Children’s Choir (formerly the Rocky Mountain Children’s Choir) embarked on a 10-day tour of France! The tour began in Beaulieu, a quaint little community in the south of France, rich with ancient architecture and cobblestone streets. While there, the choir traveled a short distance to the old French village of Carennac to perform at an 11th-century abbey and a beautiful hillside church. The singers also enjoyed some casual, impromptu performances along the waterfront near local restaurants and shops.
In addition to performing, they attended the opera The Magic Flute in an ancient castle and capped off their visit with 3 days of sightseeing in Paris.
The DCC’s bi-annual tour program offers important opportunities for meaningful cultural exchange and collaboration. For many of our singers, these tours are the first opportunities they have had to travel outside of the Denver metro area, and tuition assistance is made available to any child who needs it to participate. Past tours have included a Civil Rights tour of the Deep South, along with visits to New York, Iowa, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Austria, Hungary, Canada, Cambodia, Germany, and a combined tour to Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia. In addition to performing independently and with local children’s choirs on these tours, our singers can sightsee, stay with local host families, and experience for themselves the truly universal language of music.
The France tour included our Fourteeners (advanced female choir) and Mountain Aires (advanced male choir). Together, these two groups are known as Thin Air, our advanced ensemble performing a diverse repertoire for mixed voices. The singers are 12-18 years old, have strong backgrounds in choral singing, excellent vocal technique, and advanced sight-singing and musicianship skills.
The mission of the Denver Children’s Choir is as important today as it was when we began in 1995. Each year, we deliver choral programs in select schools and community-based settings throughout Denver to children ages 7-18 of diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Children learn to sing and read music while they develop self-confidence, build relationships, strive for excellence, and gain appreciation and respect for one another.