Children should be heard and seen.
Especially if they are members of the award-winning Foothills Children’s Choir out of Okotoks.
The choir started approximately six years ago as the Okotoks Children's Choir and it has grown ever since, currently under the direction of Kristin Stearn.
“The goal is to provide community options for a choir for children ages six to 12,” said Stearn, who also teaches at St. Francis of Assisi of Academy.
“This is an opportunity for children to come and learn a certain style of music, chorale music and just friendships as they sing together.”
The choir provides plenty of variety for the singers.
“We do quite a range to keep the kids interested,” Stearn said. “We do a piece in Italian so we learn other languages, but we also do pieces that they would know, musicals, pop music from videos — a wide variety.”
The choir season started in September after a spectacular 2018-'19.
It received the Adjudicators’ Choice Award for chorale at the Highwood Music Lions Festival, with a 95 per cent score, and was recommended for provincial competition.
The recommendation was a sound one.
“We sent a recording into provincials and were awarded a 92 per cent and given second in our class category for the province,” Stearn said.
They recorded the American classic Shenandoah and an Italian piece Caro Mio Ben.
Cooper Donnelly, 11, a student at Westmount School, took his singing to the Foothills Children's Choir.
“I like to sing and I thought maybe it would be cool to join,” Donnelly said. “I got to sing a variety of different songs and I got to make friends.
“It’s fun to sing.”
His favourites are from movies such as Shenandoah and A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman.
The festival in High River was a highlight.
“It was fun and it was good for us to win the award,” Donnelly said.
Stearn also puts a little pop in the young singers’ selection. Some of the pieces included Rihanna’s Diamonds; John Lennon’s classic Imagine and something 180 degrees from Rihanna, John Denver’s Grandma’s Feather Bed.
There’s room for practically all pre-teen ages voices in the Foothills Children's Choir.
“We have two choirs,” Stearn said. “We have the Prelude Choir, which is the little guys from ages six to eight. It’s basically the training ground.
“It’s learning how to form the voice through games and play… there are also some performances.”
The older singers are in the Cantate Choir.
“We had 35 in that choir in 2018-'19,” Stearn said. “That’s the one which goes out in the community more.
“Last year, we performed at the Saskatoon Farm, Light up Okotoks and the Highwood Festival.”
The Foothills children's Choir is considering adding an older choir if there is interest from the Foothills community.
The choirs practice on Thursdays at the Grace Lutheran Church in Okotoks. The Prelude Choir goes from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and the Cantate from 6:45 p.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information on the choir or to register go to foothillschidrenchoir.ca or email [email protected]
