Artists
Artists
Uniting Voices
Uniting Voices (formerly known as Chicago Children’s Choir) is a nonprofit organization that empowers and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to find their voice and celebrate their common humanity through the power of music.
Founded at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement on the South side of Chicago, Uniting Voices has grown from one community-based choir into a vast network of school-based and after-school programs that serve thousands of youth from every zip code of Chicago and beyond.
Helmed by Emmy-winner and Grammy-nominee Josephine Lee, Uniting Voices has also established itself as a renowned artistic powerhouse in its own right, opening doors to life-changing performance experiences that inspire young people to develop leadership and collaboration skills. In addition to musical productions (including original works Sita Ram, Long Way Home, and Rainbow Beach), Uniting Voices has worked with some of the world’s most influential musicians and musical institutions, including Beyoncé, Bobby McFerrin, Karol G, the Eagles, Yo Yo Ma, Luciano Pavoratti, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Chance the Rapper, Common, the Q Brothers, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera, Ravinia Festival, and others. Through more than 55 years of touring, Uniting Voices has performed for leaders around the world (former President Obama, former South African President Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama) and is celebrated for using music as a tool to transcend cultural barriers, forging meaningful bonds between young people across the nation and the globe.
With its vision of a harmonious world, Uniting Voices has impacted the lives of tens of thousands of diverse youth throughout its history. Since its founding in 1956, the organization has built programs that reflect the racial and economic diversity of Chicago. Eighty percent of the youth it serves are from low-to-moderate income households. High school seniors enrolled in its choir programs have a 100 percent graduation and college acceptance rate, and they go on to become global ambassadors who embody Uniting Voices’ core values of education, expression, and excellence in a wide array of professional fields.
