Editor's note: This article was edited at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 18 to correct the time of the concert. The concert starts at 7 p.m.
Christ the King Academy’s youth choir will hold its first concert of the school year on Monday, Dec. 18.
With 62 students ages 5 and up from across Lewis County and neighboring areas currently enrolled, the choir aims to help Christian children improve their singing abilities.
“We want to see them growing excellence in their musical abilities, specifically in the realm of singing,” music director Joe Stout said, adding that singing is an “incredibly important part” of the Christian faith. “A lot of kids don’t receive very much musical training, at least around the area of vocals, so we wanted to make sure that we had something that was available for kids as young as 5 all the way up through seniors in high school.”
The choir has focused on learning music that is “not terribly complex,” instead focusing on the basics, such as singing from the diaphragm and emphasizing vowels, Stout said.
The choir students have had seven practices leading up to Monday’s concert, “and one of the things we've emphasized during the practices is seven different virtues in the Christian faith … that's been one of the themes about the choir program,” Stout said.
Christ the King Academy is a K-12 classical Christian academy in Centralia that is currently in its second year.
The academy’s long-term goal for the youth choir program, Stout said, “is that we want to be training the Christian kids of Lewis County to understand music, to not be afraid to sing, and to understand their way around a musical staff. Even if they don't understand all of the musical theory, to kind of know when to sing up, when to sing down, when to rest.”
In addition to performing the music it has practiced, the choir will invite concert attendees to join in congregational singing, Christmas carols and scripture readings, Stout said.
The concert starts at 7 p.m. and takes place at the Calvary Chapel in Centralia.
For more information on Christ the King Academy and the youth choir program, visit https://christthekingacademy.org/.
Registration for the youth choir is currently closed, but will reopen in the spring.
