Jamestown
Youth Choir
With music as its cornerstone, the Jamestown Youth Choir seeks singers between the ages of 11 and 18 who want to learn, sing, and grow. Attention to voice technique, foreign language study, phonetic exercise, sight-reading, historical context and educational enrichment will make for a unique choral experience.
The Williamsburg area is ripe with history, culture and music. Using the music to drive our discussions, participants will delve into historic documents, sites and artwork to bring the program material to life.
Each rehearsal will include high- level segments on healthy singing habits, advanced sight-reading, translation and proper pronunciation of foreign languages. We will explore the historical background of the composers and works, and there will be lots of singing. Repertoire will be advanced and WILL require effort and practice outside of rehearsals by the participants.
The Jamestown Youth Choir is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please check back again in the future!
2018-19 Inaugural Season
Music of Jamestown – At Jamestown
Our first program
will introduce the
Jamestown Youth
Choir in the most
appropriate way –
with music that
would have been heard, known, or sung on Jamestown Island by the people who lived there.
Selections by Byrd, Locke, Gibbons and Morley, plus some music from the Native American tradition will be included.
Performances will be at historical sites in and around Jamestown Island.
Special guests and speakers will help to enrich our experience.
Here We come a Wassailing – Traditional carols of the 18th Century
“Hark! How All the Welkin
Rings!” The Holiday
season is richwith history
in the Williamsburg area.
In the mid18th century, the
tunes and lyrics that we now
know from childhood were not quite established – what exactly is a Welkin? Charles Wesley reigned supreme, the Hallelujah Chorus hadn’t yet reached Virginia, and Greensleeves was still a best-seller.
Join us as we explore the holiday traditions of our Colonial forefathers as they shake the yoke of their puritanical past.
Oh… and a “welkin” is a “Herald Angel”
Songs of the Civil War -Youth on the Battlefield
“And fair the form of music shines,
that bright, celestial creature,
Who still, 'mid war's embattled
lines, Gave this one touch of
Nature.”
-Virginia poet
John Reuben Thompson
When the youth of both the North and South marched off to battle, they took the songs of their childhoods with them.
We will explore the world of song beyond “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Dixie”, following 16-year old Edwin. F. Jemison as he volunteers, fights and dies at nearby Malvern Hill, and is buried in his hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia. Trips to local sites, including singing at the Museum of the Civil War Soldier at Pamplin Park, will enrich the experience of our singers.
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