Phoenix Children's Chorus Raises Their Voices to Conclude 2025-2026 Season

Greg Kostraba: This is KBACH Heart of the Arts Podcast. I'm Greg Kostraba. The Phoenix Children's Chorus concludes its 2025-2026 season with three concerts May 2nd through the 9th at locations in Phoenix and Tempe. Troy Meeker is the Artistic and Executive Director of PCC, and he's in the KBACH studios to talk about the ensemble and its upcoming concerts. Welcome!

Troy Meeker: Hi, Greg. Thanks so much for having me.

Greg: Before we talk about the upcoming programs, tell us a little bit about the ensemble—or maybe I should say ensembles? I saw that PCC began in 1984 with 35 singers, and now you’re up to what, about 250?

Troy: Yeah, a little over 250 in our downtown program. Across the breadth of the program, we're a little over 300 kids. So, serving a lot of kids. Yeah, we started as an outreach group for the city of Phoenix. In 1984, we were actually part of the City of Phoenix. It was an after-school choir designed to be a place where all kids could come and sing in a supportive community, and that’s kind of the heart of who we’ve always been. We became an independent non-profit in 2010. I think we’re currently the largest youth choir in Arizona. More than 97 different zip codes of kids come to see us every week.

Greg: That’s pretty remarkable. Now you mentioned downtown. Do you have another location as well?

Troy: We do. We opened our first neighborhood choir a couple of years ago in the Northwest Valley, and that’s been growing and doing great things in kind of the Glendale-Peoria area. And then the best-kept secret that is coming up is we’re actually going to be launching our second neighborhood choir next year in North Phoenix. So, we’re really excited for a new partnership with Paradise Valley School District to be able to provide more high-quality music education outside of school hours for the community that’s there.

Greg: And it helps those people because they don't have to traipse all the way to downtown Phoenix or to Northwest Valley.

Troy: That's exactly it. We realized years ago that while our downtown program is amazing—I mean, it is our premiere program, it houses our two international touring choirs—not every kid in the valley has the ability to travel for a quality music education. And so we've got to take music to them. We love being able to move to different neighborhoods and bring music to the kids where they are.

Greg: The program is for grades three through 12. So you obviously break those up into smaller subsets. Tell us a little bit about how many there are and what you try to do as the kids get older in terms of making things more complex or interesting or, you know, teenagers are their own thing, right?

Troy: They are! It’s definitely a different program. The dividing line we call a children’s division and then we have a youth division. So we kind of separate them that way a little bit. All of our ensembles are kind of basically age-grouped. It’s kind of—it doesn't fit so well on a brochure when you say that fifth grade is a pivot point. A fifth grader might be in a younger ensemble or an older ensemble, but the right answer is we’re all about kids. And a fifth grader with a lot of experience should be going up to a more advanced ensemble, and a fifth grader who’s just learning about music should be in a beginning ensemble where they can learn and grow. We want to meet the kids exactly where they are.

Looking at our downtown program, we have five different core choirs in that program. Presto starts at grade two, so grade second through fifth in that choir. And then we have a training choir that’s grades five through eight, so you’ve got a middle school training choir, and then an international touring middle school choir that’s grades six through eight. So kind of breaks it up a little bit. We don't forget about our youngers. First graders love to sing, kindergartners love to sing, so we also have what’s called our Poco Voce program. Poco Voce meaning “little voice.” And this is for our youngest singers to come in and get a general music and singing experience that is non-audition. Anyone can sign up and be a part of that program so that we can give them a great music foundation even at those really young levels.

Now our high school kids—that is something different. So we have a youth division, we’ve got two choirs in that. Both are mixed-voice ensembles, so changed voices for the guys. And they're doing great work. We have a training ensemble and then we have an international touring high school ensemble, which is the group I conduct in the organization.

Greg: All of these ensembles are going to be part of your upcoming concerts, I assume. Tell us about the "We the People" performances on May 2nd and May 3rd. It's kind of a musical celebration of America’s 250th.

Troy: I think most choirs across the country figured out, “Wow, America’s turning 250, we should program something.” And it’s really been exciting, I think, in the choral community to get to look around and see how everybody approached that differently. Our vision was we wanted to take the unique voice of America and put it on stage. So we wanted music that was uniquely either American composers or musical styles that are uniquely American. So you're going to see things like jazz and Broadway. You're going to see folk music, but also indigenous music. Let's be honest, in a two-hour concert, we’re not going to cover all of the great music of America, but we can get a nice little sampler platter, if you will.

Greg: So the first one is May 2nd, which is a Saturday afternoon at three at Phoenix Bible Church. And then Sunday, May 3rd, also at three at Tempe Center for the Arts. As a conductor, how is it different for you in these different spaces when you have to conduct the same kids, the same repertoire, but the acoustics are different, the audience is either closer or farther away? What do you have to do as a conductor to adjust for any of that?

Troy: It’s funny. I always tell the kids: you sing your voice, not the space. We have been just incredibly blessed to do some wonderful things. And a couple years ago, we were invited to perform in Barcelona at the Sagrada Familia. It is this monstrous-sized cathedral in the middle of downtown Barcelona. You walk in and you feel so small. And when our kids went to sing in that space, I just said, “Wait, wait. Remember how it feels. Sing your voice. The room does the work.” That has always helped them, I think, to feel confident and connected. So when we travel, when we do anything, whether we just are switching concert venues…

Now that said, some concert venues are better than others. We are very lucky to be a resident organization at Tempe Center for the Arts, and that is a beautiful concert space to sing in. And Phoenix Bible Church is our home; that’s where we do our rehearsals. What we really like about that space is it allows us to bring in some technology too. So we’ve got some giant LED screens that are up on the stage with the kids, and we get to add environmental images that get to bring us a little bit more immersive into the music. So I think our audiences really get something special.

Of course, I want everybody to come to every concert, but I think both concerts are a little bit different in their appearance. At the church, you're going to have a little more technology, a little bit more audio-visual engagement. And at Tempe Center for the Arts, you're going to see a concert that is really great kids singing at a really high level in a beautiful concert hall, putting on a great show.

Greg: And then that's followed by "Raise Your Voice." Now that's a separate program on May 9th at Barry Goldwater High School in North Phoenix. Tell us a bit about that concert.

Troy: Correct. So that's our Northwest Valley program. So one of the goals of our neighborhood choir is that we have an opportunity for the kids to perform within the community that they live in. All of the rehearsals, all of the performances, all of our outreach, all happen in that same area so that the kids don't have to go far, but they get to dig into their community and be a part of everything right near home. And we love that because all across the valley we've got so many unique spaces and so many beautiful communities. It's nice to be able to celebrate them right where they are.

That's kind of the culmination of work of that neighborhood choir. So Vivo and Vivace, both the choirs there. Vivo is second through fifth grade, Vivace is fifth through eighth grade. And then we’re also bringing out our international touring middle school choir from downtown to kind of guest perform on the concert. It’s nice because it fills up a little bit more time so everybody feels good. It keeps our two programs very connected so the Northwest Valley doesn't feel like they're just off out there doing everything by themselves. And it also gives us a chance to build new relationships between kids who don't see each other every week. And so musically we get to share together, socially we get to share together, and we get to be a part of our community in the Northwest Valley. So it’s just a win-win across the board.

Greg: Now you've talked a number of times about your touring choir, and the chorus does travel to Boston for its annual tour after the season wraps up. Why do you feel it's important for these young choristers to go on tour?

Troy: Tour’s one of the most impactful experiences we have because you get out of your neighborhood. You know, we spend so much time talking about our neighborhood, but it’s nice to go somewhere else and see other things that are happening. One of our core values is the idea of culture and community. We want kids to experience all that the world has to offer. And there’s a different culture in Phoenix than there is in Tucson. There’s a different culture in Phoenix than there is in Boston.

We don’t have to always travel across the world — don't get me wrong, we went to Japan last summer and it was one of the most incredible tours we have ever done—but this year with the 250th, we thought, what a wonderful time to get to explore a little bit more of our country’s history, to get to go to one of the places where unique things happened. Maybe we’ll spill a little tea in the harbor while we’re there ourselves! We’re doing a wonderful collaborative concert with Boston City Singers while we’re there, and that’s going to be a great opportunity for them to, again, meet new people, get to know the community there, and hopefully make some new friends.

Greg: What is the reception that you get, being from Phoenix, going to Boston, going to Japan, Spain, like you mentioned? What do people say to you?

Troy: Can I tell you? It’s the most amazing thing. I’m grinning ear to ear; I wish people could see that. I think traveling other places and getting to share what we do so passionately is just one of the best experiences in the world. We have been greeted with nothing but love and support in the places we go. And we’re really big in building those collaborations, working with local ensembles so that we can learn more about the music styles there, we can learn more about their community and their culture.

When you come with a heart that’s open and a willingness to learn and explore… We spend a lot of time preparing our kids for tour in different ways. Domestic tours are a little different than international tours. We love both. But when you go to a place like Japan, our kids ahead of time are learning culture. Most of our kids don't know how to bow. Bowing is not, you know, something we typically do in Arizona when we meet people, but in Japan we need to know how, and we want to know so that we can be respectful when we’re there and we can be wonderful stewards of and representatives of our country and our city and our state. Music is this beautiful connective tissue that we all share regardless of where we come from or what our background is. And I think it just makes us more human and more open, and I think it’s just a wonderful vehicle to share this life.

Greg: Troy, thanks for coming in.

Troy: Absolutely. It’s such a joy. Thank you so much, Greg.

Greg: Troy Meeker is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Phoenix Children's Chorus, which presents their final concerts of the season May 2nd, 3rd, and 9th at locations in Phoenix and Tempe. Ticket information is at phoenixchildrenschorus.org/performance. For the KBACH Heart of the Arts Podcast, I'm Greg Kostraba.