Project Grant

Youth Sing Out featured seven (7) choirs representing three (3) of Central Minnesota’s premiere youth choral organizations with 209 singers between the ages of 9-18 performing separately and together in a final massed choir piece on stage. There were 440 patrons in the audience for our ninth annual concert, nearly one hundred more than the previous year, and we believe this was due to increased marketing of this concert. The audience surveys collected indicated top marks because of the quality of the program, the quantity of music, and the variety of choral organizations represented. The surveys collected indicated success of this concert and that we are meeting a need in the community. A sample of these responses included: “…[It was] Exciting to see so many talented youth from this area! …This just reinforced my love of live music! …This is one of my favorite concerts of the year. Outstanding! … I love to hear the youth sing choral music. … It is great to see the junior choirs getting excellent music training.” We had a 50% increase in survey response from the participating choral directors versus last year, who indicated that the flow of the concert and logistics were very well planned and that the variety of performing groups and music selections were perfect for the type and style of this concert. Each of the directors and their choral groups enjoyed being able to sit in the audience to hear the other ensembles perform, and noted that it was especially important for all groups to have the opportunity to make music with their peers, as well as perform and refine some of their own repertoire. For the Saint John’s Boys’ Choir group “Nova Voce,” (boys whose voices have already changed) it was an opportunity for these ninth grade men to sing with the more mature male voices of the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota Men’s group. Both groups collaborated together on one song, and as a result, seven of these young Boys’ Choir men auditioned for a spot in the Youth Chorale after Youth Sing Out and all were accepted into our program for the 2016-17 season! We saw a 28% increase in audition requests for next season as well, with a marked increase in Cantabile and Saint John’s Boys’ Choir singers following this concert. Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota didn’t change the number of social media posts in comparison to last year, but instead we were careful of when we posted as well as how we posted (wording, timing, and added a video). As a result, we were able to generate many more post-likes and our reach was greater than in 2015. The number of likes for our posts this year was: 213 (compared to 77 in 2015); the number of people reached this year was: 4,395 (compared to 1,124 in 2015) – a 291% increase of people reached in the community! With the addition of the video, we had 750 unique viewers, 822 people watched the video, and 54% watched the video in its entirety. There was a noticeable increase in ticket sales this year due to the variety of choirs, the number of audience members that they were able to bring, and our marketing efforts. This year, our event brought in 440 audience members versus 350 in 2015. We targeted two south St Cloud neighborhoods in proximity to the venue and sent out an additional 1,498 postcards advertising this concert through Every Door Direct Mail. It is difficult to determine how many audience members attended due to receiving the postcards or seeing the billboards in the St Cloud community, but whether they attended or not, they did see an advertisement for Youth Sing Out and the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota. The audience was on their feet at the close of the final piece, “Can You Hear” and post-concert, we received numerous emails about how much our patrons enjoyed the concert.