About Seattle Girls Choir

Founded in 1982, Seattle Girls Choir provides a comprehensive choral education with an emphasis on vocal technique, musical literacy, and ensemble performance. We currently serve close to 200 students who reside in Seattle and its surrounding regions. Choristers attend over 90 different schools. We have levels of instruction for choristers in kindergarten through high school, in addition to a training choir for older beginning singers and a contemporary choir for teens. Each season’s rehearsals run September through June. Instruction includes music theory, sight singing, ear training, vocal training, and performance skills. In the summer months, we run day camps that are often new choristers’ first exposure to our program offerings, as well as a residential summer camp for older choristers. Additionally, we have a long tradition of travel, which includes workshops, festivals, conventions, competitions, and domestic and international performance tours.

 

Our Mission

Seattle Girls Choir is a community that provides young singers with a high-quality music education and a place to belong.

Our Vision

To enrich the cultural landscape of the Pacific Northwest.

Our Values

  • Quality musical education
  • Belonging
  • Dedicated community
  • Artistry
  • Growth

Comprehensive Choral Education

Seattle Girls Choir has 5 core auditioned ensembles that progress from one level to the next: Dolcine, Vivissimi, Allegra, Cantamus, and Prime Voci. We also have a non-auditioned choir for young singers (primarily kindergarten and 1st graders), and an ensemble for 4th-6th graders called Entrata which serves as an additional entryway into the program for older students. At the high school level we have a choir called Sorella, which performs pop, folk, and contemporary styles, with a focus on independent ensemble singing. What unites all of these ensembles is the emphasis we place on providing a rigorous music education that builds upon the knowledge acquired during each previous level.

Choir Highlights

Awards:

  • International Youth and Music Festival, first place award – Vienna, Austria
  • Youth Choir Division: Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, first place award – Wales
  • Children’s Folk Division: Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, 2nd place award – Wales
  • Youth Choir & Chamber Choir divisions: International Choral Kathaumixw – Canada: SGC has won 1st place in various categories multiple times they have attended. 1986, 1988, 2000, 2014, 2018

Special Performance Opportunities:

  • Pacific International Choral Festival (PICFEST) Young Women’s Choral Festival – 2016
  • Salzburg Festival Opening Concert, Salzburg, Austria – July 2009
  • American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA) Northwest Division Convention, Portland, OR – March 2006
  • Pacific International Children’s Choral Festival, Eugene, OR – June 2005, 2007, 2014
  • World Festival of Women’s Singing – Featured Choir, Salt Lake City Feb. 4-7, 2004
  • Czech Sacred Music Festival, Prague – Featured Choir, 2003
  • Seattle Girls Choir 20th Anniversary Concert – Benaroya Symphony Hall, Seattle – June, 2002
  • World Festival of Women’s Singing (Americafest) – Co-host choir with Elektra – 2001 concerts at Town Hall, St James Cathedral and Benaroya Symphony Hall, Seattle
  • ACDA National Convention, San Antonio, TX – March 2001
  • Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica & Concert at St. Ignatius in Rome – July 2000
  • Portland International Children’s Choir Festival – “Featured American Choir” – 1998
  • Harvard University Festival of Women’s Choirs – 1996
  • International Choral Sympaatti – Tampere & Helsinki, Finland – 1990
  • Goodwill Arts Festival: “Soviet-American Yourh Choir Concert” – 1990
  • Music Educators National Conference (MENC, WMEA) – National convention, Anaheim, CA – 1986
  • Hosted some of the world’s finest young choirs in Seattle (the Moran Choir of Israel, MaedchenChor Hannover, the Tapiola Choir of Finland, the Shchedryk Choir of Ukraine, and many others!)

National & International Tours:

  • European Concert Tours: 1985, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2016, and 2022
  • AmericaFest 1994: America’s first traveling multicultural choral festival. One of four Founding Choirs (the others were Tapiola Choir of Finland, Efroni Choir of Israel and Schedryk Choir of Ukraine.) Concerts in Minneapolis, Des Moines, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Toronto, Quebec City, the Maritimes and New England.
  • Millennium Jubilee Cathedral Tour: Prime Voci sang in cathedrals and churches in Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Venice, Ravenna, Siena, Florence and Rome (at the invitation of Pope John Paul II) in the summer of 2000. This was a great experience for us as a non-sectarian community choir!