Uniting Voices Chicago

Congratulations to our friends and partners at Lyric Opera of Chicago on announcing their 2025-26 season! We are excited to continue 25 years of collaboration with two productions: - Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci, a pair of one-act operas - Carmina burana, Carl Orff's iconic cantata

We’ve got a SoundBites surprise for you! ? We are excited to welcome alum Jamila Woods as the SoundBites 2025 guest artist! Jamila Woods is a musician, poet, and multidisciplinary artist from the South Side of Chicago. Her most recent album, “Water Made Us,” is a genre-blending song cycle on love and the wisdom of surrender. Jamila has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk, CBS This Morning, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. An award-winning poet, Jamila’s work often blurs boundaries between poem and song. As cultural critic Doreen St. Felix writes, “It makes you wish all singers were poets.” Jamila will perform a solo set accompanied by Peter CottonTale, in addition to singing alongside Voice of Chicago. Jamila is an alumnus of Uniting Voices (formerly Chicago Children’s Choir) having performed in our Beverly Neighborhood Choir Program and Concert Choir. Peter CottonTale is a Grammy-winning composer and producer from Chicago, who produced “Together,” an uplifting song that featured Uniting Voices alongside Chance the Rapper and Cynthia Erivo. Celebrate SoundBites with us on April 17. Tickets, including group tickets, are on sale now: https://bit.ly/43pZCSO Don’t miss out on this opportunity to give back to Chicago while experiencing the best of its music scene!

GET AMP'D: Community Concerts are back for the spring! ?????? These seasonal showcases bring to life the sounds of Chicago neighborhoods through original songs, choral classics and world music. Each concert represents the unique fabric and culture of its neighborhood and no two concerts are the same! Uniting Voices has been bringing music to every corner of the city since 1956. Join us at a concert in your neck of the woods: https://lnkd.in/gG92XyVw

Delectable drinks and food? ? Awesome prize packages? ? Performances by Chicago’s rising stars? ? An energizing evening celebrating the next generation? ? SoundBites is the perfect way to empower young Chicagoans while also enjoying an unforgettable celebration. And whether you're flying solo or rolling deep with a crew of fellow tastemakers,?we've got multiple ticket options for you to make the most of the night. Explore ticket options: https://bit.ly/41kvRBw We will see you at Venue West on Thursday, April 17 at 6pm for SoundBites!

Did you enjoy the Oscars over the weekend? The official Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences portraits were taken by none other than alum Dana Scruggs! ??

Last chance for Early Bird Tickets for SoundBites! Our annual fundraising event hosted by our Ambassadors Board is an unforgettable evening that you cannot miss. You're invited to Venue West on Thursday, April 17 at 6pm for a night of showstopping performances, delicious bites and beverages and an exclusive prize drawing—all celebrating our youth empowerment and music education programs. Act now so you don't miss this incredible opportunity to give back and enjoy doing it. Get your tickets by 11:59pm on Wednesday, March 5 to save 20 percent: https://bit.ly/41kvRBw

Earlier this month, over three celebratory days at the Chicago Symphony Center, our School Program singers and Voice of Chicago honored Black History Month (BHM) at our Black Futures Concert Series. In addition, our Neighborhood Choir Programs and Dimension came together at the Chicago Cultural Center for a day of workshops. This immersive experience explored past, present, and future through Afrofuturism—the convergence of art, science, technology, and accurate histories of Africana civilizations in pursuit of infinite liberation and possibility. A staple of our world-class music education programs are our learning packets for pillar events, provided to singers at every level of our programs. They serve as tools to help our singers learn both the songs themselves as well as their cultural contexts, heritage, and importance to the event overall. This blog post is the next in our series of annotated learning packets, as we share a sample page of the packet with our audiences so you can see how our conductors use these packets as learning tools in the classroom. The Black Future Concert Series curriculum packet content follows the story of Kendrick, a composite character, who represents perspectives born out of real cultural experiences. Lonnie Norwood, our Director of Africana Studies, curated the program alongside Farlanda Buchannon and Bailey Haynes, and worked with Heather Stewart and Amanda Wolff of the Social-Emotional Learning team to create an educational packet used by all Uniting Voices singers across the city. The curriculum packet was designed by Kell Fahey, Multimedia Designer. We spoke with Lonnie about the experience of curating the curriculum and leading the three-day Concert Series. Check it out on the Uniting Voices blog!

“Seeing everybody come together singing - that even though we don’t know each other, we can still come together to create beautiful sound - is just really magical.” - Daelyn C., Voice of Chicago singer As #BlackHistoryMonth comes to a close, we’re reflecting on the power of young voices coming together. For our singers, the Black Futures Concert Series was the culmination of months of learning about the music and culture of the African diaspora, exploring self-awareness, imagining new possibilities, and creating the future—to dream big and turn fantasy into reality! Thanks to your generous support, thousands of students from across Chicago took to the Symphony Center stage to unite in song and imagine a world where anything is possible. Over three inspiring days, Lonnie Norwood, Director of Africana Studies, led singers on a transformative journey through time and space, guided by the power of song. Explore your impact in our Black Futures Concert Series Impact Report: https://lnkd.in/dUAGYzFa Thank you to our Black Futures Concert Series lead sponsor Amazon, presenting sponsors Jackson Legacy Foundation and Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and curriculum sponsor BMO. #artseducation #musiceducation #musicinourschools

"I grew up at Lyric. From very shortly after we moved to the States, I was involved in a few productions. I was in the children’s chorus with what was then called the Chicago Children’s Choir [now known as Uniting Voices Chicago] in ‘Tosca.’ I was eleven years old for that. We also did ‘La bohème,’ which was great." Thank you to Ed Frazier Davis for this lovely shoutout in Newcity in such a beautiful reflection on the legacy of longtime Lyric Opera of Chicago music director and principal conductor—and his father—Sir Andrew Davis. We can't wait to continue our 25-year partnership with Lyric this spring, and in a full-circle moment, this season's production is of "La bohème"! Opening night is March 15!

Check out this profile of alum Shelley A. Davis, one of the founders of SOL Collective, a Chicago-based storytelling group dedicated to uplifting and showcasing the diverse and nuanced experiences of women of color.