Carla Clark | For The Republic The Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir sings God Bless America during the POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony at the Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans, Columbus, Ind., Friday, September 20, 2024.
The Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir (CICC) will be hosting the Hoosier Hills Choral Festival at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at the First Christian Church in Columbus. This choral festival celebrates the gathering of children’s choirs from Indiana and Ohio, as children come together through music.
“It’s always great to see the friendships forged through this music festival. Singers come together for a short time to present a wonderful concert and leave with lasting connections with other singers they might not otherwise have met. It’s one of the reasons we do what we do,” said Joshua Pedde, executive artistic director of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, of which the CICC is part of.
This festival features the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir, along with the Cincinnati Youth Chorus, the Evansville Children’s Choir and the Greenwood Christian Academy School Choir. The performance will also include Ruth Dwyer, Director of Education Emerita of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and guest conductor.
The public performance at the conclusion of the festival is open to the public and does not require tickets for entry, but donations will be accepted during the free-will offering.
For grades three to eight, there are the auditioned choir groups Concert Choir and Descant Choir. There is also a Preparatory Program for grades one to three and Early Childhood Program for ages four to five. All programs accept new singers on a rolling basis.
For the last 32 years, the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir (CICC) in conjunction with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic has been serving the greater Bartholomew County area through multiple programs for children and youth.
Under the artistic direction of Pedde and directed by Melissa Garcia, CICC performs several concerts annually. CICC is a division of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir (ICC) which serves more than 2,500 central Indiana children from ages 18 months through 18 years.
The Indianapolis Children’s Choir nurtures and inspires student achievement through quality music education and the pursuit of artistic excellence in choral music performance. For nearly 40 years, the ICC has provided high quality music education to the Columbus community through CICC programming.
