DETROIT – The Detroit Children's Choir is a music education program with deep roots in choral performance.
"I started singing in choir at the age of 3, so I have grown up singing in choirs," Carol Schoch said.
"And what do you remember from them?" asked Mitch Albom.
"I just remember how good it felt to sing with other people," Schoch said.
Schoch, a music educator, started Detroit Children's Choir after watching a performance of the Chicago Children's Choir.
"They have about seven neighborhood choirs strategically placed around the city, and then in school choirs, that's where they reach the most children, and so I was telling people about this idea and I thought it would work for Detroit," Schoch said.
Detroit Children's Choir began in one school in 2006 and now operates in 10 schools and several neighborhoods, all with one goal in mind.
"The mission is to use music education as a cultural platform to unite children of diverse backgrounds," Schoch said.
"What types of things are they singing?" Albom asked.
"We try to expose them to just about everything, every genre, and they hear how they sound and then they hear how they all sound together. They're hooked," Schoch said.
Now in its 10th year, Detroit Children's Choir is recognized as the only community-wide choral music program in metro Detroit, drawing singers from the city to the suburbs.
"These children don't have enough beauty in their lives, and when they hear beauty and they experience beauty, they just want more, and this is a way to give them a beauty that they don't experience enough of," Schoch said.
Unifying communities through music, Schoch and the Detroit Children's Choir are creating beautiful music in the heart of Detroit.
Heart of Detroit