Wow!!! Savannah ROCKS!!!

Ever since I was a boy I’ve been allowed one Hero per day, and today my Hero is a guy named Roger Moss who sat on a panel with me in Savannah earlier this month. Roger is the Artistic Director for the Savannah Children’s Choir.

The Savannah Children’s Choir sprung out of a coffee-hour conversation at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church between Moss and Managing Director Cuffy Sullivan.  Moss, a baritone, music teacher and actor had originally moved to Savannah to continue in advertising. Savannah provided an environment that allowed  him to leave a career in advertising and pursue his first love, music.  Sullivan had returned to her college town for the quality of life and to raise a family with three musical children. Both discovered there was no community-based children’s choir and saw an unmet community need.

The congregation, with a history of supporting and launching new organizations, agreed to assist the choir’s start-up.  Moss and Sullivan assembled a broad-based board and launched with a week-long summer choir camp that attracted fifty-two children from across the region.  Soon, almost one hundred children from every socio-economic and racial background were auditioning for the forty positions in the choir.  The choir now consists of children ages 6 -14 from a diverse array of backgrounds. 

The Savannah Children’s Choir teaches the children more than music.  Academic excellence is stressed, and each child must maintain a B or better average.  To help achieve this, choir members can choose to participate in free weekly tutorials provided by volunteer teachers.  This reporting period,  100% of SCC members had a B average or better -- 23% had B averages and 77% had A averages. 

Respect and teamwork are also emphasized.  The children work as a team in tackling a variety of music and languages; their debut concert featured songs in Latin, Spanish, Hebrew and English.  Long-term plans include a two-week music camp in summer 2007 and choir tours in and outside of the United States as ambassadors of Savannah.

Hopefully some of our major foundations and civic leaders will look at the Savannah Children’s Choir and initiatives like it as models for use around the country.

posted by Rod