The Evansville Children’s Choir is celebrating its golden anniversary in grand fashion: an eight-day residency in London, England, in June 2027.
Before then, the choir will appear at the Evansville Philharmonic’s Peppermint Pops concerts Dec. 5-6. With singers ranging from second graders to high school seniors, ECC engages young singers’ talent and aims to boost their love of music. The London tour for older members continues a tradition of national and international travel. ECC is raising $150,000 for the outing after being invited by the Indianapolis Children’s Choir to join a performance with composer Sir John Rutter and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. “It’s something to look forward to,” says Gage Johnson, a Signature School student and first-year member.
Choir members file into Methodist Temple on Lincoln Avenue for 90 minutes of rehearsal every Friday afternoon. They sing together before splitting into older and younger groups — Associate Director Michael Miller leads younger singers, while Associate Director Kerri Blanford takes the older ones.
A Central High School and University of Evansville alumna, Blanford teaches choral music at Thompkins Middle School and jumped at the chance to rejoin ECC in 2019, when Miller, a Louisville, Kentucky, native and choral conductor at F.J. Reitz High School, also arrived.
Blanford sang under longtime conductor Joan Nevill, who remains involved as a board member. “I was so ecstatic when I was asked to come back,” Blanford says.
ECC singers are looking forward to Peppermint Pops, says Good Shepherd Catholic School eighth-grader Ellison Wolfe: “I like all the sounds of the Philharmonic orchestra and the cool songs that we do with them.”
