There is a practical reason for music education: it teaches people to think, to solve problems, to take risks, to think independently, to be an entrepreneur and innovator. The virtues of music education are the virtues of free enterprise in general and of a high tech, knowledge based society in particular: flexibility, adaptability, inventiveness, even playfulness.
William E. LaMothe, C.E.O., Xerox Company
School Choral Education Program
In 2023, Coastal Voices embarked upon an ambitious goal of helping to expand choral education in Lincoln County schools, whose arts and music budgets have been greatly reduced over the past decade. After getting feedback from teachers of schools in Newport, Lincoln City, Toledo, and Waldport, and meeting with the LCSD Superintendent and Director of Secondary Education, we formulated a plan to visit schools on a rotating basis during the 2023-2024 school year. These special sessions focus on working with both students and teachers to supplement their training with personalized techniques to address the specific challenges of each class. Best practices are also modeled by members of Soundwaves, a smaller ensemble of Coastal Voices. Our ultimate goal is to instill a love of singing in our youth, as part of our goal of making Lincoln County known as the county that sings!
Many thanks to the following funders for their support of this program:
Braemar Charitable Trust, Roundhouse Foundation,
Siletz Tribal Charitable Contribution Fund, Sponenburgh Memorial Trust.
You can support these important programs by attending the choirs’ upcoming performances.
Newport will be singing at the Newport Spring Music Concert on May 23rd at 7 pm in the Newport High School Gymnasium.
You can hear Taft locally at Taft 7-12 on May 28th at 6 pm.
This spring we’ve been supporting the choral programs at Taft 7-12 in Lincoln City and Newport Middle School. The teachers involved, Cory Francis and Robby Carr, are excited about the tools Coastal Voices has been able to provide so that students can practice independently, helping to learn their own parts and being familiar with all their pieces. This makes the most of their group rehearsal times and enhances the learning experience.
Students can click their logo below to go to their practice pages. You will need a password to continue.
