Statements
Mission
Metro Nashville Chorus of Sweet Adelines International is a singing organization for women and people of other marginalized genders which promotes barbershop harmony, strives for musical excellence through education and performance, and provides its members with opportunities for personal growth.
Background
Metro Nashville Chorus was chartered as a Sweet Adelines International chorus in 1971 and has performed and promoted the barbershop sound in middle Tennessee for more than 40 years. We are blessed to be under the direction of Master Director Kim Wonders. There are over 20,000 member involved in Sweet Adelines, and more than 600 choruses around the world. This is an organization where 'you come for the music, but you stay for the love.' Our friendship and commitment to one another not only allows us to sing 'like we're holding hands' - it also provides a support system for members as they face life's challenges. We love to perform for our communities in Middle Tennessee, and reach out to the young and old through school and senior center performances as often as we can. We also work to bring 4-part a cappella harmony to the next generation through the Vickie Wonders Foltz Memorial Scholarship and events such as the annual YWISH Festival: Youth Working in Song & Harmony. In 2020 and 2021, due to COVID-19 restrictions, in place of our YWISH festival we hosted a free webinar for educators called "Barbershop Music in the Classroom." We were excited to return to a live YWISH Festival in 2022 and 2023. We are working to rebuild our participants and partners for the festival.
Impact
Our greatest accomplishments are: 1. Increasing community awareness-- Metro Nashville Chorus uses music as a catalyst for personal learning, growth and development and we are continuously reaching out to the community to make more singers aware of the opportunities our organization provides. In November 2022, we held our 10th youth music festival, YWISH (Youth Working in Song & Harmony) for treble-voices singers, ages 14-25. We also offer a college scholarships to high school seniors pursuing a degree in music, funded by our Vickie Wonders Foltz Memorial Fund. 2. Member development-- We continuously strive to enhance the growth of our members by bringing world-class coaches to Nashville to work with our members and provide performance and competition opportunities for continued development. In the last few years, we brought coaches of internationally winning choruses to work with our members. We went to Houston in the fall of 2011 to compete in an international competition, and won the international mid-size choral competition. We competed in Denver in the fall of 2012, and won the Harmony Achievement Award for the top small/mid-size chorus and came in 12th place among competing choruses of all sizes. We were named regional chorus champions in April 2013. At our international competition in November 2014, we again won the Harmony Achievement Award for the highest scoring small/mid-size chorus. We also placed in the top ten of the semi-finals, allowing us to compete in the chorus finals. We came in 7th place among competition choruses of all sizes. In April 2015 we were named regional champions and again earned the Harmony Achievement Award and an 11th place finish at International contest in Las Vegas in Fall 2016. In October 2018, we again earned the Harmony Achievement Award and a 9th place finish at International contest in St. Louis. In April 2019, we won our regional competition and earned the right to compete at the next International contest (2020 International was postponed to 2022 due to COVID). We competed in Phoenix in 2022 and won our fifth Harmony Achievement Award and 7th place overall. We won our regional contest in 2023 earning the right to compete in the 2024 international contest. 3. Programming-- We aim to give back our art form to the community, regardless of socioeconomic background. In prior years, our audience have included the St. Ignatius Multicultural Festival, the Women, Infants and Children National Council, The Leading Age national convention, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, the Nashville Veteran's Administration, Martha O'Bryan Center, Breast Cancer Awareness, and Songfest at Jackson Street Church of Christ. We are always looking for opportunities to perform for diverse communities throughout middle Tennessee.
Needs
1. Community awareness - making more singers aware of the opportunity to learn, grow, and perform through music (marketing and performance expenses) 2. Member support - helping members from all backgrounds participate in travel and performance opportunities 3. Coaching - bringing world-class coaches to Nashville to work with our members and help us reach new levels of growth - as a unit and personally 4. Music - arranger and copyright fees to bring new music to our members and our audiences 5. Costumes - eye-catching costumes aligned to our musical abilities
CEO Statement
When friends of Metro Nashville Chorus donate to us, they are helping to fund the process that makes the music possible. Your funds allow us to reach new members and new audiences, to challenge ourselves with new music and new vocal skills, and to find ways to reach personal goals that many singers did not know were possible. We are blessed by the financial and emotional support of our friends and fans.
Board Chair Statement
We have so much to be proud of-- our growing membership (currently almost 50 voices) and earning the right to compete at the Sweet Adelines international competition in 1990, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 (rescheduled to 2022 due to COVID), and 2024. The high visibility of our members in furthering the education of Sweet Adelines International through their leadership positions as regional and international faculty. Our greatest challenge remains awareness-- getting the message out to the Nashville and Middle Tennessee community of how powerful music can be as a motivating force in members'' lives, as well as a catalyst for personal and professional growth.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Singing & Choral Groups |
| Secondary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Music |
| Tertiary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Performing Arts |
Areas Served
As our name suggests, we focus on the Metro Nashville area, but we have members who join us each week from Columbia TN, Knoxville TN, and Chattanooga TN. In the past we have had members who travelled in from Memphis TN, St Louis MO, Philadelphia Pa and Birmingham AL.
| TN - Davidson |
| TN |
