Milwaukee Children's Choir Hosts 'Sing, Dance, Celebrate!' May 23

Milwaukee Children's Choir (MCC) will host "Sing, Dance, Celebrate!" This season finale features contagious music that will keep audiences humming and tapping their toes for days to come.

All choir members, grades 1-12, will perform. Repertoire includes contemporary works such as Swingin' with the Saints (Mark Haynes), We Are the Music Makers (George Strid), and Dirait-on (Morton Lauridson). This year choir members have been studying music from the Romantic Period in Western music, and the concert also features works by Felix Mendelssohn (Die Nachtigall) and Franz Schubert (Nacht und Traume and an adaptation of Seligkeit).

MCC's senior treble singers have just finished a world premiere performance of Peter Pan with Milwaukee Ballet. As a special treat for audience members, they will present excerpts from the delightful new ballet score written by British composer Philip Feeney.

The concert ends with hundreds of youth, grades 1-12, performing Rhythm of Life, written by Cy Coleman for the musical "Sweet Charity." This arrangement, by Richard Barnes, reminds us that the "rhythm of life is a powerful beat, puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet!"

Photo opportunities are available to the press in advance or at the concert.

About Milwaukee Children's Choir, Inc. Now in its 16th season, Milwaukee Children's Choir (MCC) is Southeastern Wisconsin's premiere professional children's choir. Under the leadership of artistic director Carol

Storck, MCC has programs for children of all school ages. Rehearsals are educational, child centered, age appropriate, and fun, and integrate several educational concepts: singing as the basis for music education, folk music for beginning singers, use of solfege, performing highest quality music, developing the complete musician, and using sequenced curriculum.

MCC teaches not only music but also important life skills such as poise, self-confidence, self-discipline, focus, memory, problem solving, and teamwork. MCC's commitment to artistic excellence makes it the "go to" choir for performing arts groups, including Present Music, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet, and Festival City Symphony. In December 2008 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel declared MCC a "highly skilled and essential musical resource" in Milwaukee.

For more information, visit www.milwaukeechildrenschoir.org.