Community Arts Support

By adding office support staff this past season, and being able to delegate a variety of day-to-day tasks, the Executive Director of Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota was able to spend an additional 3-4 hours per week dedicated to the promotion of the organization. As a result from her efforts, concert attendance and awareness of the choirs increased by 12% per concert in comparison to prior years without office support staff. Having a third music intern gave the artistic staff more contact time with singers during regular rehearsal evenings. This intern was able to take rehearsal notes and upload to a weekly website for singers, run additional voice sectionals, and take care of administrative and logistical tasks prior to rehearsal (such as singer check-in, setting up the various spaces for rehearsal, etc.), thus allowing the Directors to spend an additional 30 minutes on the teaching of the music so that singers were fully prepared for future concerts and appearances. Seventy-nine singers and their parents in the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota organization were surveyed to see how they were connecting with Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota and each other. The purpose of the Singer Survey was to find out if they were motivated, engaged, felt as if they had a sense of belonging in the choir, as well as a sense of purpose. Parents were asked on their survey to respond to a series of questions based on their own experiences of Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota, as well as their opinion of their child’s experiences. Through qualitative and quantitative measures, Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota Singers rated their enjoyment of the program at a 4.4 out of five (88%); Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota Singers rated their own personal preparation for concerts with a ranking of 4.2 out of five (84%); Singers’ parents rated Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota performances as 4.9 out of a scale of five (98%); and Singers’ parents felt that Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota is a positive impact on youth rating the organization a 3.7 out of four (93%). As a result of these findings, we were able to evaluate and change future programs and offerings for the 16-17 season to better serve our singers and choir families. The Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota Chamber Singers traveled on a one day run-out in the spring of 2016 to five (5) Central Minnesota high schools as a way of spreading the word about Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota and promoting our upcoming spring auditions. We estimate over 260 total singers saw our Chamber Singers perform over the course of the day. As a result of our efforts, thirty (30) new singers signed up to audition for a spot in our choir (via survey). In addition, while we retained a good portion of our singers from the previous season, 40 new singers auditioned to become a member of Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota in comparison to our 2014-15 season. We believe the higher numbers were due in part to social media marketing, word of mouth, and our run-out to the area schools. Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota was able to position itself at an artistic level of excellence to achieve an invitation to perform at the American Choral Directors Association’s National Convention in Minneapolis during the 2016-17 season. Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota's Artistic Director submitted audio/footage of our 2015-16 Mixed Choir to the American Choral Directors Association National Convention committee and after a number of blind auditions, the invitation arrived and stated that the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota was one of two (2) Minnesota choirs serving singers under the age of 18 that were invited to perform in concert at the 2017 convention.