12/27/2024
We are so proud to be the headquarters of the Choral Foundation. Please consider a donation before the end of December at midnight! www.ChoralFoundation.org/makeagift
Have YOU or someone you love been moved or inspired by a Choral Foundation ensemble performance or education outreach in the past year? If so, please consider a donation to our 2024 Annual Gifts Campaign at this link... www.ChoralFoundation.org/makeagift
We have so much to be thankful for at our multi-state arts organization. Over 750 musicians are involved in our performing ensembles every year in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Atlanta! Our concerts are heard by thousands each year, bringing Classic choral music, Sacred A Capella, Gospel, major classic works with orchestra, 6 octave premiere handbell concerts, and new contemporary music world premieres throughout our groups. WOW!
2024 saw an impactful collaboration/partnership made with the Allegro Choirs of Kansas City. Our two organizations are leading the way in the Kansas City region to inspire 'healthy singing for a lifetime' from early childhood to adulthood. It is such a joy to see this partnership result in excellent partner concerts, new Choral Foundation children participating in Allegro, and Allegro alumni joining in WBCF ensembles! It is a Win/Win for both organizations.
Speaking of Healthy Singing, the Choral Foundation, as part of our education outreach, houses the only VOCOLOGY LAB in the Kansas City region. The last piece of equipment needed to make the lab fully functional is arriving this week through the good work of Dr. Jamea Sale and her The Institute for Healthy Singing & Voice Research team. We hope to partner with Renée Fleming in 2025 through the 'Renee Fleming Investigator Award', advancing the study of the Science of Arts with Health and Well-being through groundbreaking research Jamea + the IHS&VR are doing with vocal changes from teenagers to pregnant, menopausal & post-menopausal women. It is fascinating work that is garnering international attention. In 2024, Dr. Sale made presentations at National and International symposiums who invited the best and brightest in vocal studies to present their research.
Dr. Sale and her team of music teachers continue their outreach in Kapkemich, Kenya affecting the lives of hundreds of children each year! The IHS&VR team is working remotely in the USA and traveling yearly to train the teachers and the girls in the Western style of music education, which is now a requirement of the African government. In the past two years, the Choral Foundation has collected donated instruments and sent over 100 instruments to be used at their school, introducing another level of music education. Next steps are to send music educators to teach the students how to play the instruments... starting in 2025!
The diverse level of programming from the Choral Foundation in 2024 was quite astounding! Our Spanish language choir is growing steadily and performing beautifully at several Hispanic festivals in KC and giving lovely performances of Spanish music in a largely Hispanic neighborhood of Kansas that has been overlooked by the classical community. This past summer saw the record breaking enrollment of 175 summer singers of Kansas City to perform Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh in Hebrew at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. And, in Georgia, the Cobb Summer Singers + Zimria Festivale Atlanta presented the Holocaust Cantata at the lovely Temple Kol Emeth. And, with a unique dedication to diversity, Vox Venti in Chicago, is committed to singing new commissions by historically excluded composers at each of their concerts, presenting diverse musical ideas that are stunning and impactful on everyone that hears them.
None of this programming would be possible without the help of our generous donors and sponsors. In 2024 we received funding from the Kansas Arts Commission through NEA, Cottage Care, The Jewish Community Foundation, The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, the Lee's Summit Cultural Arts, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, Johnson County Arts Council, Martha Lee Cain Tranby Music Enrichment Fund, Guadelupe Centers, Diagnostic Technology Consultants, Hallmark Corporate Foundation, Thropp Holbrook Consulting, Georgia Council for the Arts, and many others. Thank you so much to all our State, corporate, and community sponsors! We love working with YOU!
The Choral Foundation is in a period of white hot growth! We invite you to join us by adding your monetary support before the end of the year. An anonymous donor will double your donation during the Annual Gifts Campaign 2024 up to $25,000 (before midnight on December 31). Please encourage your philanthropic friends to consider this most important and essential arts organization, the William Baker Choral Foundation. Here is the donation link again... www.ChoralFoundation.org/makeagift
