The Miami Children’s Chorus is South Florida’s first community children’s chorus! It has offered a quality choral music education and performance program since the 1960’s and has grown its initiatives beyond choral concerts to include community programs and events, a new music commissioning program, recording, touring, and even a virtual choir during the Covid-19 closures.
The organization was founded in 1965 as the Miami Choral Society which first offered adult ensembles and began adding youth programs in 1971. Eventually the adult chorus became a stand-alone organization, The Civic Chorale of Greater Miami, and what remained was transformed into the Miami Children’s Chorus under the direction of Timothy A. Sharp from 1990-2019. MCC gained its reputation for artistry and excellence under Mr. Sharp’s direction and in that time its young singers were afforded many quality artistic opportunities including; a decade of performances with the Florida Grand Opera (2000-2010), multiple appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra (2012 & 2015), singing with Queen Latifah at the 44th NFL Super Bowl, with André Rieu and Ethan Bortnick for PBS, and with Barry Manilow at the American Airlines Arena in 2019.
Now led by alumni Liana Salinas and Analy Mendez, MCC continues to train and prepare South Florida youth to collaborate with artists in a wide variety of musical settings such as performing with Latin Grammy winning artist Paquito D’ Rivera for the America Viva Show(2022) and participating in recording projects with Latin-Grammy artist Manuel Turizo (2021), Grammy-winning producer “el Guincho” (2022), and with Emilio and Gloria Estefan for “The Estefan Family Christmas” album (2022).
The organization has also toured extensively with performances across the Northeastern United States and abroad to Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, and most recently, Australia. MCC has presented concerts at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Argentino de La Plata, St. Mark’s Basilica, Canterbury Cathedral, Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and at the Sydney Opera House. The organization looks forward to a summer 2024 tour to Spain!
Additionally, MCC has commissioned over fifty works for youth chorus through its New Works for Children’s Voices New Music Project. Nearly half of those works are published and performed by groups around the world.
In these ways, MCC fulfills its organizational goals which have always been to share and spread the joy of singing, display the quality artistic potential of our South Florida youth, and to stretch the possibility of children’s chorus programming.
