Over the past year, developments have been in action to start up Long Beach’s first children’s choir.
Minister of Music at Grace First Presbyterian Church Stan DeWitt explained that the formation of the group originally began with the idea of a program that kids could get involved with after school.
“Last year we were looking for a new children’s music director at Grace First Presbyterian Church— where I am the minister of music— and we decided that we wanted to think bigger,” DeWitt said. “We’ve long talked about the possibility of an after-school music program here. We settled on the idea of a children’s choir, something that Long Beach currently doesn’t have. So this season we decided to jump right in and give it a go.”
DeWitt will be the executive director of the choir until someone is found to fill his shoes, and he explained that the musical director of the group will be Steve Clausen.
Clausen has been the music and choir teacher at Hughes Middle School for 20 years and will take on the role of director of the new youth chorus when rehearsals begin.
The idea originally stemmed from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, which has become a model for the Long Beach group. DeWitt said that the LA chorus started out as a church choir for the Pasadena Presbyterian Church before becoming a city-wide choir.
However, the one difference between the two groups is money.
“For this season, we are offering a really low inaugural season tuition of $400 for the season, or $50 per month,” DeWitt said. “That will most likely go up next season, although we will keep the tuition as low as possible to make it affordable. As comparison, the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus tuition is over $1000 per year.”
Dewitt then explained that scholarships will be given to singers who cannot afford the season’s tuition.
For the first year, Dewitt is expecting one choir, but as time goes on, improvements will be considered.
“For this season, there will be one group, and it will be open to singers in 6th to 12th grades. Eventually we will have three to four choirs of differing ages,” he said. “We’ve also discussed offering music fundamental and training for young elementary kids down the road.”
DeWitt anticipates that the church choir will evolve into a nonprofit with multiple age-based choral groups.
However, the new youth choir will not be a competition team.
“No competitions,” he explained. “However, down the road the group will tour and will be singing with groups like the Long Beach Symphony. For this season, we will perform our first concert at Grace First Presbyterian Church.”
DeWitt said that the choir will be in good shape for its first year if it has around 20 to 30 members.
Before the choir performs for the first time, the singers will attend rehearsals.
“All of the rehearsals will be held weekly at Grace First Presbyterian Church,” DeWitt said. “We will rehearse from Oct. 1 through Dec. 17, and then start up again in January and continue through May.”
Overall, the response from the community has inspired DeWitt and other directors that have played a crucial role in developing the new youth choir.
“The greatest thing about this process so far has been the enthusiasm everyone in the arts community has shown,” DeWitt said. “We have notes of encouragement, excitement and congratulations from the executive directors of the Long Beach Symphony and the Camerata Singers, and from the musical directors of Camerata and the Long Beach Chorale. The thing we hear over and over again is, ‘It’s about time.'”
For more information about the concerts, contact DeWitt at (562) 972-3324 or stan@gracefirst.org.
