By ROD KING

For the Northwest News

Rhinehart Music Center on the Purdue Fort Wayne campus will be alive with vocal music May 7 when the 250 members of the Fort Wayne Children’s Choir take the stage to celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary. The concert is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.

Each of FWCC’s eight choirs will perform two numbers each and the full choir plus alumni members will close the program with a rousing work entitled “Here’s to Song” directed by Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Busarow.

Find links to tickets and more activities at fwcchoir.org. Tickets are: adults, $13 in advance; seniors 60-plus, $8 in advance; or age 18 or under, $4 in advance.

“We pulled out all the stops for the 50th anniversary by commissioning nine new works by composers from throughout the country,” Busarow said. “We’re really excited to have 114 of our former members returning from around the U.S.A. The final song should be very powerful with 364 voices in the ensemble.”

According to Busarow, the theme for this year is Growing Through Music. Each of the eight choirs will sing a classic “gem” of their choice and a newly commissioned work specifically composed for them. Each choir, which has its own director, is made up of youngsters by age and ability. Overall ages range from 8 to 18.

Former Artistic Director Fred Meads, who headed the organization from 1999 to 2009 and is credited with the exponential growth of the program at the time, will lead the alumni in singing “Everlasting Melody” and “Homeland.”

Fort Wayne Children’s Choir is the outgrowth of a singing group called Children of Peace Choristers started by Catholic school music teacher Jocelyn Basse in 1973. She felt that there wasn’t enough time in school for music, so she started the chorus to give children the opportunity for more music.

“Since the beginning with around 20 youngsters, the organization literally exploded to a total of 300 under Meads, who was our third director. I was hired in 2012,” said Busarow. “Over the years more choirs were added and the works we perform have become progressively more difficult.”

“Early on, teenage boys whose voices began to change were no longer welcome in the ensemble. Twenty-five years ago, however, that changed with the organization of a high school ensemble called Youth Chorale,” explained Busarow. “I direct the full concert chorus, the Concert Choir and the Chamber Singers. Our choirs do between 50 and 60 performances a year.”

FWCC has grown to a regional program drawing its members from more than 80 schools.

Thirty-seven members of the group will participate in an international tour to Japan this summer. The tour includes a visit to a Fort Wayne Sister City, Takaoka.

FWCC will host a summer camp that starts July 24 and will conclude with a concert July 28 at Foellinger Outdoor Theatre in Franke Park in Fort Wayne. Next season the Fall Harvest concert is scheduled for Nov. 5 at PFW and a spring concert for older children will be on May 5, 2024.

A program called First Steps in Music sponsored by FWCC is in the process of being rebooted after COVID; First Steps teaches parents how to sing with their young children. It is held in the Allen County Public Library’s main library and branches throughout the city. It will also be presented at Brightpoint and Early Childhood Alliance. Times and locations can be found on FWCC’s website. More than 1,000 parents and children attended the initial program in 2019.

Busarow, a Dayton, Ohio, native, earned a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Valparaiso University. After receiving his master’s degree in conducting from The Ohio State University, he was invited back to Valparaiso to direct the college choir and became FWCC director in 2012.

He and his wife, Nicole, a church organist and handbell choir director, have four sons. Their oldest son, Simon, 9, is a member of FWCC. “I never thought of being a children’s choir director when I got into music,” said Busarow, “but it was a good choice and has been very fulfilling. All the kids are members because they want to be involved as well as their parents. It has been important for FWCC to earn the respect of the community and become a real part of the arts culture in Fort Wayne.”

Meads, the former artistic director, holds several roles with the Westrick Music Academy, conducts two choirs for the Princeton Girl Choir and is music director for the Princeton Boy Choir, all in New Jersey. He was director of vocal studies at the American Boychoir School for nine years.