Youth Chorus
The Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture is establishing youth choruses in New York City schools, beginning in the Bronx.
Our choral program brings the disciplined approach of the Italian bel canto tradition—the vocal technique developed for classical singing—to young people. Students learn to develop their individual voices while discovering how those voices can come together in the polyphony of great choral music.
Choral singing develops much more than musical ability. Students gain confidence performing in public, learn to sing beautifully in multiple languages, and experience the discipline and cooperation required to create something as an ensemble. The study of music also engages many of the same faculties essential to mathematics and science: concentration, pattern recognition, proportion, memory, and the ability to understand relationships among many parts of a whole.
Just as importantly, a chorus creates community. It gives young people the experience of working toward something beautiful together—an activity in which individual development and collective achievement reinforce one another.
Because a chorus can involve many students at once with relatively modest resources, it is also an unusually effective way to bring serious musical education into schools and extend its benefits to students, families, and the wider community.
The Foundation’s Music Director, Frank Mathis, describes the philosophy and approach of the vocal program in his message to students and teachers below.
If you are interested in establishing a chorus at your school, please contact us at +1 (929) 551-9171.
THE SCHOOL CHORUS PROJECT
“If you can speak, you can sing. And if you can sing with others, you are capable of creating something extraordinary.
Singing is one of our most natural forms of expression. Like speech, it allows us to communicate thought and feeling—but when we sing together in a chorus, something more complex happens. We learn to listen to ourselves and to one another, to coordinate our voices, and to become part of a larger musical whole.
The practice of singing develops physical awareness, concentration, coordination, memory, and control. It also brings together many fields of knowledge—including mathematics, language, anatomy, acoustics, and psychology. All of this takes place through the shared experience of creating something beautiful with others.
If you already love to sing, join the chorus. If you think you cannot sing, you should join us too. You may be surprised by the voice you discover.”
WHAT WE WILL DO
“We will teach young singers to use their voices freely and naturally through the principles of the Italian bel canto tradition. Rather than separating vocal exercises from music-making, students will develop their technique through singing real musical works, including music in other languages.
As their voices develop, students will gain the confidence, skill, and musical understanding necessary to express themselves more fully—both individually and as members of an ensemble.”
— Frank Mathis
BIOGRAPHY
Frank Mathis, tenor, is a New York–based singer, conductor, and music educator. He has served as Music Director and cantor at St. Michael Parish in Greenwich, Connecticut, and maintains a private voice studio in New York City.
Mathis began his vocal training as a baritone with Maestro José Briano and Italian soprano Antonella Banaudi. In 2017, he appeared as a soloist in Roland Hayes’s Life of Christ song cycle at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, in a performance celebrating the life and legacy of pianist and vocal coach Sylvia Olden Lee, alongside bass-baritones Kevin Short and Simon Estes. In 2019, working with Jonathan Hare and William Hicks, Mathis began his transition from baritone to tenor and currently studies with Dr. Emilio Pons. In 2021, he premiered the role of Joe in Dwayne Fulton’s The Martinsville Seven with Trilogy Opera Company.
Mathis grew up singing at Bethany Baptist Church in Philadelphia and later spent fifteen years as a chorister and ringer with the Schiller Institute. As a music educator with the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, he has played a leading role in bringing classical music and choral singing to public-school students throughout New York City, including the Bronx, Harlem, and Brooklyn. He has also taught the Foundation’s summer music program for students in grades 4–12 and co-directed choruses in New York, Boston, and Germany.
His other professional choral work includes engagements as a ringer with Christ Church Manhasset and St. Michael Parish in Greenwich.