Glen Ellyn-based Anima Singers helps children find their musical voice

Emily Ellsworth says a choral group such as Anima-Young Singers of Greater Chicago can do much more than help youngsters become better singers or learn to read music.

At its best, Anima's artistic director says, such groups can help youngsters find their voice in ways that can help impact other parts of their lives.

"I think we help kids find their voice ... as a human being, in terms of confidence in front of an audience or in front of a group," Ellsworth says. "I think we help them find a voice by learning what it means to work within a team in a very positive way. I think we help them find their voice in understanding what excellence feels like and wanting to seek that in whatever avenue is right for them."

Anima-Young Singers of Greater Chicago, formerly known as the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus, offers kids and teens multiple choral ensembles where they can learn how to be better singers and get the chance to perform across the United States and even abroad.

The group is open to youngsters of all abilities from kindergarten through 18.

During its 2014-2015 season, the chorus is celebrating its 50th anniversary with multiple performances, including a June gala where current members and alumni will join to sing past hits and new pieces.

It's an anniversary worth celebrating.

History lesson

Anima started as a Glen Ellyn Park District musical theater program in 1964. Today, the program focuses on choral singing and draws kids from a range of communities.

Through its ensembles, participants can learn musical skills such as reading music and training their ear.

"We're trying to encourage youngsters and treat them like young musicians and young artists, not just kids who like to sing," Ellsworth says. "And with children's voices, if you put a bunch of them together with the right training and the right materials, they can accomplish really high-level things."

Anima also gives youngsters the chance to work with high-profile organizations, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and to tour nationally and internationally.

Ellsworth says ensuring high-quality performances is central to Anima's goals.

"It's not just taking kids who like to sing and making sure they're having a good time, which we also want to make sure they are, but it's also setting a bar that makes them feel really proud of what they do here," she says.

"That's important because if they don't feel proud of what they accomplish, they never get a sense of what excellence really feels like.

"We're living in a culture now where kids are offered so many different opportunities that it's easy to kind of just skim the surface of many activities rather than going more deeply into something."

Valuable lessons

Choir member Annie Wagner says it's really fun to sing with Anima - and it will help her reach her goal of singing professionally when she grows up.

"Once you get in, you meet all these new people and they treat you like family and you basically sing with friends every day," the seventh-grader says.

Anima alum Jenna DeVries attends the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studies music education.

DeVries joined Anima in seventh grade and ended up performing with the group in the Baltics and Alaska. She says she was inspired to pursue music in part because of her experience in the choral group.

DeVries says during her time in Anima, her conductor and accompanist were her role models and her experience made her want to "kind of pay it forward and do that for someone else someday."

"I had always thought about going into the field of education, just like teaching in general, but I really hadn't thought about music seriously as a career really until I joined Anima," DeVries says.

"I hadn't really seen it as being practical until I really experienced this and I saw, 'Yeah, you can do music for the rest of your life.'"