QC Music Guild Youth Chorus marks 10 years
The Quad City Music Guild Youth Chorus is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special concert Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m. at the Prospect Park theater, 1584 34th Ave., Moline.
Music director Valeree Pieper (who’s been a longtime Music Guild performer and choreographer, and her husband Kevin, and daughters Hillary and Heather are veterans) launched the program in 2014 after seeing the then-Quad City Symphony Youth Choir and Moline Boys Choir were unaffordable for many families. Both later disbanded.
“I brought it to the board and said this could be something that, it’s a good way to reach out to our community and get new families involved and so the board supported it and we went from there,” Pieper said Wednesday.
She worked 21 years as an elementary vocal music instructor in the Moline school district, retiring four years ago.
The Music Guild Youth Chorus consists of 3rd– to 8th-grade students, including several homeschooled students, and they rehearse for 90 minutes every Monday night at the Guild lobby. Since COVID, they usually meet one part rehearsing first each week, then the second part the same night, and they come together about four to five weeks into rehearsals.
Many kids participate over several years, and they’ve served about 100 total over the 10 years, Pieper said. Students are not just from the immediate Quad Cities, but come from as far as Muscatine, DeWitt and Cambridge, she noted.
Saturday’s concert features the current 28 members and for the first time, Youth Chorus alumni – 14 altogether, most in high school and two college students.
“I just thought, when I realized that this was our 10th season, I thought, well, that’s kind of a mile mark. So, maybe it would be cool to invite some of these kids back to see,” Pieper said.
“It’s amazing to me, some of the kids that have come through, their parents had no idea we were here,” she said of Music Guild (which was founded in 1949). “We’ve had a number of kids that, at each of my auditions, I would say 85% never had heard of Music Guild before and they, didn’t even know that we were here.
“It’s really been a great outreach, and the whole idea of the open house, it was kind of one of those things it’s really helped people see where we are an entity that we serve the community in a number, in a number of ways.”
The chorus repertoire (in two-part harmony) is all from musical theater, including the early December concert – which features half winter or holiday-oriented musical selections.
Saturday’s program (which features four songs from 2024 Guild shows) will include:
“Opening Up” from “Waitress”
“Soon It’s Gonna Rain” from “The Fantasticks”
“Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”
“Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” from “My Fair Lady”
“Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” from “Hair”
“Step One from “Kinky Boots”
“Send In the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music”
“Seize the Day” from “Newsies”
“Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof”
“Consider Yourself” from “Oliver”
They do two concerts a year, and the student’s $50 fee helps cover the cost of music and student shirts, and Music Guild supports stipends for Pieper and an accompanist.
The choir occasionally sings at Festival of Trees, at some churches, and once for a teachers’ group.
Admission to Saturday’s concert is $10 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under.
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