Choir school offers free choir to elementary students

Courtesy photo/The Madeleine Choir School

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MCS students and others will have the opportunity to participate in a new choir.

SALT LAKE CITY — A new Madeleine Choir School program will offer elementary students from across the Salt Lake Valley the opportunity to participate in a choir and sing at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. The St. Dunstan Choir for third- and fourth-graders will begin in September; it is open to any students from those grades who love to sing.

This new program grew out of a desire to provide the MCS third- and fourth-graders with a formal choir experience, said Melanie Malinka, the school’s director of music. While all of the students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade have music classes, including a singalong class for third- and fourth-graders, in the past the students had to wait to become part of one of the school’s seven choirs beginning in fifth grade.

“We wanted to add that for students who are interested because they would start building some of those skills that they will need in the cathedral choir,” Malinka said. “They would build them sooner, and they would get to try out what it is like to be in a choir, just to have that sense of ‘Oh, we’re getting together to sing music together.’”

With many public schools cutting back on their music programs, the choir school wanted to offer this opportunity to any third- or fourth-graders who are interested, Malinka said. The St. Dunstan Choir will be open to any local third or fourth grader “who wants to try out what it is to sing in a choir and in particular in a choir that is affiliated with a church,” she said.

The weekly choir rehearsals will focus on skills such as reading music and vocal technique through the singing of folksongs from around the world. The choir will also be introduced to the sacred music the older choirs sing during services at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. Malinka will lead most of the rehearsals with help from other choir schoolteachers.

In time, St. Dunstan Choir members may be able to join the older choir in singing at the Cathedral of the Madeleine’s daily afternoon Mass. They will also have other performance opportunities, including possibly visiting retirement homes in the area, Malinka said.

“This is supposed to be a fun experience for them to try it out and to see if it is something they are good at,” Malinka said. “All you have to do is sign up and show up.”

There is no cost to participate in the choir, which will meet on the MCS campus. Students need not be able to read music to apply, Malinka said. There is no limit on the number of students that will be accepted. The new choir will begin rehearsals on Sept. 6.For information, call The Madeleine Choir School, 801-323-9850, or email Malinka at mmalinka@utmcs.org.