Chicago Children’s Choir (CCC), a nonprofit organization that inspires and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to become global leaders through music, is thrilled to announce the grand return of its signature program Paint the Town Red, a free citywide celebration of unity and the power of young people to bring beauty to our world.
In person at the Pritzker Pavilion for the first time since 2019, Paint the Town Red will take place on Thursday, May 26, at 11 a.m., with a pre-show starting at 10:45 a.m. Thousands of youths from every Chicago zip code will gather to perform alongside Grammy-Award winner Peter CottonTale, as well as acclaimed opera singer Jonathan Green, Eurovision star vocalist Vasil Garvanliev, Chicago’s The JuJu Exchange and other guest artists to celebrate 65 years of the Choir changing lives through music. This event is free and open to the public. More information is available at ccchoir.org/events.
Paint the Town Red at Millennium Park (2019)
"This is what it’s all about," said CCC President Josephine Lee. "We use the effervescent experience of music to unite voices, forge new friendships and captivate the city, and with Paint the Town Red this year, that’s exactly what we’ll do. This is an event for everyone, whether you’re a Chicago native or visiting from around the world.”
As part of the celebration, frequent CCC collaborator and Grammy Award-winning producer and artist, Peter CottonTale, will join the Choir to perform “Together,” CottonTale’s original song that was featured in Google’s 2020 Year in Search video, which went viral with more than 230 million views and was performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Inauguration Night 2021.
This uplifting concert will also feature the world premiere of “Look Into the Sky” a collaborative musical piece composed by Grammy Award-nominee Ayanna Woods and The JuJu Exchange co-founder Julian Davis Reid. The piece was developed through a series of workshops with CCC singers to give young people a way to voice their perspective on ecological responsibilities and the relationship between the city and the environment.
The concert showcases the breadth of repertoire and cultural learning signature to the Choir. The heart-stirring, “Still Here”, written by composer-in-residence, W. Mitchell Owens III for the 2021-22 season, serves as an anchor as it honors the 65th anniversary of the Choir with a powerful message of hope and resilience. Other highlights include “Te Deum” from a recent collaboration of Tosca between CCC and Lyric Opera; Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation,” featured in CCC‘s annual Black History Month concert earlier this year; “Latinoamerica,” a part of the upcoming (June 11) annual Canto Latino concert’s curriculum celebrating Chicago’s Latin American heritage; Civil Rights anthems reflective of the Choir’s 1956 founding; as well as songs in Latin, Korean, Hebrew and Zulu.
About Chicago Children’s Choir
Founded in Hyde Park in direct response to the Civil Rights Movement in 1956, Chicago Children’s Choir (CCC) has grown from one choir into a vast network of in-school and after-school programs driven by one mission: to inspire and change lives through music. CCC has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 diverse youth throughout its 65-year history. Since its founding, CCC has focused on building programs that reflect the racial and economic diversity of Chicago. Eighty percent of youth served are from low-moderate income homes and participate completely free of charge. High school seniors enrolled in CCC have a 100 percent graduation rate, becoming global ambassadors who carry on CCC’s core values in a wide array of professional fields.
Under the leadership of President Josephine Lee, Chicago Children’s Choir has achieved new heights and revolutionized the youth choral arts world through innovative creative partnerships and new artistic endeavors. Recently, the Choir collaborated with Grammy Award-winning music director and producer Peter CottonTale on his original song “Together” for Google’s 2020 Year in Search video, which went viral with more than 240 million views. Other recent projects include the 2020 PBS national broadcast of the new staged production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS under the direction of Marin Alsop in July 2018 and 2019 with two frequent creative partners: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ravinia Festival; Lyric Opera’s productions of Dead Man Walking, Tosca and Tchaikovsky’s romantic thriller The Queen of Spades all of which included select Chicago Children’s Choir singers cast as the children’s chorus; the world-premiere hip hop musical Long Way Home, written and directed by the renowned Q Brothers Collective, which played to five sold-out houses in 2018 and was subsequently released as a one-of-a-kind album in 2021; and collaborations with Chance the Rapper on his critically-acclaimed directorial debut, Magnificent Coloring World (2021), as well as on his debut studio album The Big Day (2019) and his Grammy Award-winning Coloring Book (2016) studio recording and tour performances. CCC has served as a model for youth choirs across the country including Boston Children’s Chorus, Denver Children’s Choir, and Indianapolis Children’s Choir.
Learn more at ccchoir.org.
Key milestones in Chicago Children’s Choir’s 65-year history:
1956 – Rev. Christopher Moore establishes the Children’s Choir of the First Unitarian Church of Chicago with the ambition of using music as a force for fostering empathy and connection across race and class at the dawn of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
1962 – With its first in-school program at Raymond School on Chicago’s South Side, the Choir begins offering regular music programs.
1965 – The Choir is invited to perform with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera. Recognizing that the scale and mission of the Choir had evolved, Moore changes its name to Chicago Children’s Choir.
1970 – The Choir sponsors its first international tour with a visit to Europe.
1975 – Chicago Children’s Choir becomes incorporated as an independent nonprofit organization.
1989 – The Choir launches its first neighborhood choir program in partnership with the DePaul University Community Music School in Lincoln Park.
2004 – The Choir serves more than 3,000 children across Chicago through its 4 primary programs: the Concert Choir, 6 Neighborhood Choir Programs, 50 in-school programs, and the Choir Academy (a charter school).
2019 – The Choir serves more than 5,000 children from every zip code of Chicago through 4 primary programs: Voice of Chicago choir ensemble, Dimension choir ensemble, 11 Neighborhood Choir Programs, and 92 in-School Programs.
2020 – In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CCC launches online learning opportunities, making music education accessible regardless of geographic barriers.