Children’s Chorus of Maryland & School of Music (CCM) has been selected as a beneficiary of the Giant Food Community Bag Program for the month of August 2019. The Giant Food Community Bag Program, which launched in July 2019, is a reusable bag program that facilitates community support with the goal to make a difference in the communities where shoppers live and work.
Children’s Chorus of Maryland & School of Music was selected as the August beneficiary of the program by store leadership at the Giant Food located at 8905 Belair Rd. in Nottingham, MD. CCM will receive a $1 donation every time a customer purchases the $2.50 reusable Community Bag at this location during August, unless otherwise directed by the customer through the Giving Tag attached to the bag.
“We are excited to be recognized by the community in this way. Children’s Chorus of Maryland is grateful to be included in this generous campaign,” said Andrea Burgoyne, Executive Director of Children’s Chorus of Maryland & School of Music. “All proceeds from this donation will be contributed to our “One Voice” campaign, a sponsorship program designed to assist a new student whose family would not otherwise have the resources to afford tuition.”
Entering its 44th season, Children's Chorus of Maryland & School of Music is one of the most respected programs for choral music education and performance in the United States. CCM features highly qualified teachers, small classes, and in-depth vocal enrichment to provide children with a complete musical education and choral experience. In addition to its Conservatory program, CCM offers a summer camp and music and play classes for 4 to 6-year-olds.
For more information on the Giant Food Community Bag Program, visit www.giantfood.bags4mycause.com.
Scientists and educators agree that music, as the often under-appreciated “seventh science”, strengthens many essential areas of a child's development, such as physical coordination, timing, memory, visual, aural, analytical and language skills. In fact, as psychologist Frances Rauscher of University of California–Irvine notes, music appears to strengthen the links between brain neurons and build new spatial reasoning, improving a child’s spatial intelligence. Studies also show that music dramatically improves the type of intelligence needed for high–level math and science.
…these findings are so significant that it will lead to a universal understanding in the next century that music is an absolute necessity for the total development of the brain and the individual.
Dr. Frank Wilson, Assistant Neurology Professor at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, reports his research shows that music connects and develops the motor systems of the brain in a way that cannot be done by any other activity. Data from UCLA brain scan research studies show that music more fully involves brain functions (both left and right hemispheres) than any other activities studied. Dr. Wilson feels these findings are so significant that it will lead to a universal understanding in the next century that music is an absolute necessity for the total development of the brain and the individual. This work bolsters the mission of Children's Chorus of Maryland to make high quality music training accessible and fun for children.
"In early childhood ... [music] seems to improve spatial reasoning, one aspect of general intelligence which is related to some of the skills required in mathematics. While general attainment is clearly affected by literacy and numeracy skills, motivation which depends on self-esteem, self-efficacy and aspirations is also important in the amount of effort given to studying. Engagement with music can enhance self-perceptions but only if it provides positive learning experiences which are rewarding. This means that musical experiences need to be enjoyable providing challenges which are also attainable. Teaching needs to generate an environment which is supportive and sufficiently flexible to facilitate the development of creativity and self-expression. Group music making is also beneficial to the development of social skills and can contribute to health and well-being throughout the lifespan and can therefore contribute to community cohesion providing benefits to society as a whole." 1
Starting music education in early childhood in age-appropriate small-group classes is much more effective and much more enjoyable for the child compared to private voice lessons which are not recommended before puberty. Our twice-weekly classes do not require a steady stream of “homework” and “practice” sessions at home. The children learn easily and effortlessly in a supportive and playful environment at CCM.
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The Children’s Chorus of Maryland collaborated with Baltimore Concert Opera in its production of “Werther” by Jules Massenet. They performed to full houses on November 10th and 12th in the Grand Ballroom of the Engineer’s Club in Baltimore, MD.
"[M]embers of the Children’s Chorus of Maryland handled their pivotal, atmospheric scenes with finesse."
Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun
Conducted by the Children’s Chorus of Maryland’s Artistic Director Susan Bialek, members of the Lyric and Concert Choir perform the role of the Bailiff’s children in this two night production. According to Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun in a review of the production, “members of the Children’s Chorus of Maryland handled their pivotal, atmospheric scenes with finesse."
From Baltimore Concert Opera: "[T]he young poet Werther confesses his love to Charlotte, but she is already engaged to another as a promise to her dying mother. Charlotte’s sister Sophie attempts to mollify the young man, but he is disconsolate. When Charlotte finally decides to love him back, it is too late. Combining lush melodies with the tragedy of young love, the opera promises an evening where no eye remains dry.”
Children’s Chorus of Maryland & School of Music will hold a Music Open House Extravaganza on Saturday, April 8th from 8 am to 2 pm in Towson. Parents, children (5 ½ and older) and teachers are invited to drop in throughout the day to observe music classes, talk to staff and enjoy refreshments. Promotional items will be given out to adults and children!
Teachers may choose to observe any of the classes during the morning from 8 am to 12 pm. Parents who want to find out more about our choral performance and music education program, may want to observe a class with students near the age of their own children. Children between the ages of 6 and 10 will have rehearsal between 8 am and 9 am, and class between 9 am and 10 am. Children between the ages of 9 and 13 will have rehearsal between 9 am and 10 am, and class between 10 am and 11 am. Advanced students between the ages of 12 and 17 will have rehearsal between 10 am and 12:30 pm.
Children attending the open house can participate in a fun, play-based sample music class with an experienced teacher and children who currently attend the Children’s Chorus Conservatory program. These drop-in classes are at 11:15 am or 1 pm.
Families who would like to have their child audition may sign up for one of the times and days in May or June. Some same day auditions will be available on a first come basis.
Staff will be available to answer questions during the day and during refreshments between 12 pm and 1 pm. Visit www.ccmsings.org and click on the Demonstration Day link to register to attend the free Open House. For more information call 410-494-1480 or email ccm@ccmsings.org. This event is supported in part by a Challenge America Grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts to Children’s Chorus of Maryland. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
Children’s Chorus of Maryland & School of Music has been awarded a $10,000 Challenge Grant to support arts engagement in American communities from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant, titled “Awakening the Natural Musician in Your Child,” will support the distribution of educational articles and fund music demonstration events for families and music teachers in the Baltimore region. Aimed at nurturing a young child’s musical interest, the articles will provide useful guidelines and specific tips on how families can encourage their child’s natural musical abilities. Free interactive musical events will be held for children and teachers throughout the year.
In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every state and U.S. jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so. The NEA announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its third funding round for fiscal year 2016, including a Challenge America award of $10,000 to Children’s Chorus of Maryland. The Challenge America category supports projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. Challenge America grants are comparatively small investments that have a big impact in their communities.
NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The arts are part of our everyday lives – no matter who you are or where you live – they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like the one from Children’s Chorus of Maryland offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.” Children’s Chorus of Maryland Executive Director Andrea Burgoyne expressed her excitement, stating, “We’re so grateful to have the NEA’s support in reaching out to the community. The early years are so important in developing a child’s musical interest and aptitude. With this initiative we hope to spark parents’ excitement about discovering music with their children, and to give them concrete and inspiring ideas for bringing music into their children’s everyday lives.”
For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to www.arts.gov.
The Board of Directors of Children’s Chorus of Maryland & School of Music (CCM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrea Burgoyne as its new Executive Director effective September 2016. In her tenure with Children’s Chorus of Maryland Ms. Burgoyne spent six years as Concert Manager and four as Operations Director, before assuming the role of Executive Director. She succeeds Ramona Galey, who will continue with CCM as Finance Director and Board member.
"The kids are so talented; the faculty and staff are some of the best in the business; and everyone comes together for this extraordinary, joyous collaboration. What could be sweeter than children singing, with such beauty and musical understanding?"
Andrea Burgoyne
CCM’s Board Chair, Jack Vaeth, expressed his confidence in Ms. Burgoyne’s ability to lead the organization, “Ms. Burgoyne’s breadth of experience and administrative knowledge, as well as her musical understanding and skills make her the ideal choice for CCM’s Executive Director.” Agreeing with Dr. Vaeth, Ms. Galey commented, “I began attempting to hire Andrea for the CCM staff as soon as I joined CCM in 2000. Andrea brings such a high caliber of integrity, skill, and diligence to CCM management.”
“It is a privilege to work with Children's Chorus of Maryland, with its long history of innovation and excellence. The kids are so talented; the faculty and staff are some of the best in the business; and everyone comes together for this extraordinary, joyous collaboration. What could be sweeter than children singing, with such beauty and musical understanding? I feel really lucky to be part of it,” said Ms. Burgoyne.
After receiving her music degree from Towson University as a vocal performance student under Ruth Drucker, Ms. Burgoyne co-taught the Early Music Ensemble at Towson U., served as assistant to the director of the Festival Chamber Players, accompanied lessons and classes at TU, and maintained a private studio of voice and piano students. In more recent years her career has focused on arts and education management, serving in that capacity for Pro Musica Rara and the Walsh Educational Trust. She has performed with the Annapolis Opera, the Baltimore Symphony Chorus, as soloist and chorus member with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and for 34 years as soprano soloist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Glyndon. In her volunteer life, Ms. Burgoyne has served as board member and President of the Child Study Association of Maryland, and on the boards of the Towson University Alumni Association, Children's Chorus of Maryland, and several other organizations.
FEATURE IMAGE: (Left to right) Andrea Burgoyne, Patti Amato, Mairee Pantzer, and Betty Bertaux backstage, graciously acceding to a group photo. Annual Winter Concert, 2011.
Emerson Pratt and Grace Vaeth will represent Children’s Chorus of Maryland and the state of Maryland at the first Girlchoir National Convention, “Let Freedom Sing!”, in Philadelphia from July 24th - 29th. This convention is a six-day choral festival that brings together two female high school singers from each state in the United States and offers its participants enriching musical and civic experiences. The festival is held at Arcadia University and features a formal concert of the 100 girls chosen to be a part of this first Girlchoir Convention. As a part of the six-day event, the girls will engage in several impromptu performances at locations throughout the city, including Independence Hall, the Betsy Ross House, The Liberty Bell, The Philadelphia Museum of Art (Rocky Steps!) and Penn’s Landing.
Emerson Pratt is a rising junior at Carver High School in Baltimore, MD and Grace Vaeth is a rising junior at the Gerstell Academy in Finksburg, MD. Both have been singers with Children’s Chorus of Maryland for over 10 years.
Before they left, they were interviewed on Fox45 Morning News to discuss their participation in the upcoming musical and civic activities.
Highlights of the convention included singing "Eye of the Tiger" live on NBC's Today Show from Independence Mall, working with well-known guest conductors, singing with the 100 member Girlchoir, and being a part of caucuses that focus on careers for women conductors and composers.
To see the Today Show performance go to http://letfreedomsingfestival.org/let-freedom-sing-girlchoir-live-on-nbcs-today/.
Children’s Chorus of Maryland (CCM) 2016 Tour Choir returned home on June 29th after participating in the Pacific International Choral Festival (Picfest) in Eugene, Oregon from June 22nd to June 27th. The theme of this year’s festival, “Shakespeare and all that Jazz”, featured the Grammy Award-winning jazz legends, The Yellowjackets. Highlights of the week-long festival included performances with ten participating choirs in a series of Sharing our Songs concerts, in addition to a performance as part of the 300 voice youth festival choir at a gala concert conducted by world renowned choral composer and clinician Bob Chilcott.
The 22 member CCM Choir worked with ten other choirs from across the United States on repertoire that included works by Mr. Chilcott, George Shearing, and Sarah Quartel. Throughout the week the CCM students performed at the Oregon Bach Festival, the “Sharing Our Songs” Concert and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. Bob Chilcott directed individual choral clinics for all the choirs.
Members of Tour Choir, parent chaperones and staff kept a daily blog of the tour, with photos and video. We invite you to check it out! Visit our Tour Blog.
By Andrea Burgoyne
Betty Bertaux spent her life making music, in every possible form—as performer, conductor, teacher, composer, creator of curriculum, founder of Children’s Chorus of Maryland and School of Music, and mentor to so many other musicians and teachers. She was a creative force, and she brought that same vital, exuberant energy to everything she did—writing, cooking, traveling, adventuring, and exploring the world. She was always ready to learn something new, tackle the next challenge, and share her discoveries with the people around her. Even after her diagnosis, her friends marveled at the creativity and positive spirit she brought to the treatment process, finding ways to elevate even chemotherapy to an affirming ritual and a kind of art. To her final days, she was always ready with a laugh, greeting everyone with a brilliant smile and a sparkle in her eye, unfailingly gracious and loving, and conscious of the experience she was creating for those around her. Words are not adequate to say how much she will be missed.
An authority on vocal and musical development in children, Betty was internationally recognized both for her expertise as a pedagogue, and for her extensive contribution to choral music literature. Her compositions and arrangements for children’s voices, published as the Betty Bertaux Choral Series by Boosey and Hawkes and by several other publishers, have been a staple of children’s choral music for nearly 40 years, and are known to music educators around the world. In addition to her own contributions to the repertoire, Betty also commissioned significant works for children’s chorus by other composers, including “Miracles” by Theodore Morrison and “A Midge of Gold” by Elam Sprenkle. Betty received her Master of Music with Kodály Emphasis from Holy Names College in 1975, where she also taught Kodály methodology and supervised student teaching. In 1992 she received a Masters of Music in Composition from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, continuing her post graduate education with studies in Gordon Music Learning Theory, Voice Care, and Musicianship Pedagogy. In 2001 she was awarded the Doctor of Music Education Honoris Causa by VanderCook College of Music.
In 1976, Betty founded the Children’s Chorus of Maryland and School of Music (CCM). Seeking initially to provide her own musically-talented child with a fulfilling choral experience, she started the chorus with only six children, and built the organization into a thriving music conservatory with three performing choruses and ten graded levels of instruction. Now in its 39th year of operation, Children’s Chorus of Maryland has served as a prototype for community children’s choruses and as a beacon in the field of music literacy education.
Colleague and friend Patricia Amato, a pianist and vocal coach at Towson University, who has also been the chorus’ accompanist since 1981, says, “Her living legacy are the children of the Children’s Chorus of Maryland and the continuing generations of children. She had respect for the children and the art of the music that she encouraged them to make. Her former students are all over the country and the world. The effect she had was far-reaching and broad.”
In a 1986 interview with the The Evening Sun, Betty said, “A singer has a responsibility to be musically literate just as much as an orchestral member. I thought we needed a children’s choir which offered good choral performance but also a solid program of training. Well, you know how they say, ‘Somebody ought to do this’? I decided I was going to be the one to do this.”
In addition to her work as both Artistic and Education Director for CCM, Betty was a member of the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, Holy Names College, and Baltimore County Public Schools Program for the Gifted and Talented. She was frequently invited to be a featured presenter at state, national and international conferences, and to serve as a guest conductor, choral adjudicator and vocal clinician for children’s choirs and festivals. In 2001, under her initiative, CCM parented the new American Kodály Institute, housed at Loyola College, a training facility for music educators and choral conductors. She initiated the “Sing for Success” research project in 2008, documenting the effect of music literacy training on academic success of children in public schools. In recognition of more than 50 years of contribution to the field of music education, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Organization of American Kodály Educators in 2011. Betty was legendary among her students and colleagues for her combination of academic rigor, lively wit and a playful spirit. A hallmark of her teaching was her ability to convey challenging material and foster high expectations, while also keeping the learning experience light-hearted and joyful. She was adamant that children thrive on high standards, quality music, evocative texts, and respect for their capabilities. CCM faculty member Lauren McDougle sums up Betty’s deep regard for her students, as she recollects the moment that Betty told her, “I know they’re just children, but we must never underestimate the depth of their souls.”
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