Spotlight! Chatham County Arts Council Connects Musicians with Local Chorus Group

This is the fifth in a nine-part series spotlighting the Chatham County Arts Council’s Grassroots Grant recipients for 2014.  The Grassroots Grant Program allows the Chatham County Arts Council to work with our own community members to determine where artists and arts funding can make the greatest impact locally.

Here’s something you might not know your arts council is doing:  The Chatham County Arts Council is connecting local musicians with an all-girls chorus group via our Grassroots Grants Program!  Sisters’ Voices, a grant recipient this year, will use its grant dollars to pay professional artists to teach the girls essential music techniques.

And if you don’t know about Sisters’ Voices:  it is amazing!  Sisters’ Voices is a community-based chorus group for girls in grades 2 through 8 that seeks to build self-esteem, instill the importance and reward of cooperation, and keep the art form of singing alive.  Sisters’ Voices focuses on learning classical and world folk music so that the singers are exposed to a diverse array of compositions and cultures.

We sat down with Sisters’ Voices Director and vocal expert Leandra Merea Strope, to pick her brain about Sisters’ Voices, the arts, and life in Chatham County.  Here’s what she had to say about…

…life in Chatham County:

“I love Chatham County because it is diverse, eclectic, and has a townsy and woodsy feel with folks from all backgrounds.”

…if a genie in a bottle could grant Sisters’ Voice one wish:

“I wish that our organization grows steadily enough that we can serve a lot of girls and families over a long period of time.”

…What opportunities are there for community members to become involved with Sisters’ Voices:

“Volunteers can help with setting up performance spaces, advertise events, become a board member, and of course attend performances.”

In case you missed the musical floating from their ClydeFest booth, you can see here that these young women were inspiring the love of music in small kiddos—including Executive Director Cheryl Chamblee’s daughter, who enjoyed an impromptu concert while she ate!