Anima, formerly known as the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, will bring its touring chorus to the First Presbyterian Church, 824 Waukegan Road in Deerfield, on Sunday, April 19, at 4 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public.
The nonprofit community organization is celebrating its golden anniversary. “Anima” is the Latin word for breath, life, soul and spirit, notes Emily Ellsworth, who is in her 19th season as artistic director, but the name change, instituted in 2008, was more of a practical one. “Kids have always come to us from between 30-40 communities all over the Chicago area,” she said. “But after more than 40 years, parents still asked us if their children had to be from Glen Ellyn to participate. There is still love of our legacy and history as the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus.”
The name change, Ellsworth said, gives the ensemble a more global tone, which is fitting as the touring group has since 2000 performed in Australia and New Zealand, Brazil, Newfoundland, China and Hong Kong, South Africa, Spain, Morocco, St. Petersburg in Russia, British Columbia and Alaska.
“Travel is part of what we do so that the children really understand the impact worldwide of music, especially among people who do not share a common verbal language,” Ellsworth said. “It really expands their horizons.”
The former Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, was one of the first community mixed-gender children’s choruses in the country, Ellsworth said. “The idea was to expand the repertoire for young singing voices and show that children are capable of really stellar work if given the right kind of guidance and training.”
The concert planned for First Presbyterian will be representative of the ensemble’s varied repertoire. The ensemble will perform a far-reaching global program of classical and opera pieces as well as international folk songs and works by American composers.
Inviting Anima to perform at the church is more than an act of community outreach, said the church’s music director Mike Nelson. He also hopes that Anima will serve as inspiration for the church’s own children’s choirs. “Anima sings with a clarity and fullness of tone like no other children’s choir I have heard,” he said. “First Presbyterian Church has always had several active children’s choirs that provide our youth the opportunity to glorify God in song. We hope that our youth members that attend the Anima concert will be truly inspired by hearing this outstanding choir.”
Anima’s Touring Chorus, comprised of participants seventh grade and up, is the pinnacle of its progressive age-appropriate development programs that begins with entry level KidSingers for grades K-1.
No matter the age, Anima is about more than the music, Ellsworth said. “Music is the medium to teach lifelong lessons about discipline, teamwork, excellence and experiencing that feeling of doing something very well. These lessons can be applied to anything (the children) will choose to do in life.”
For Touring Chorus member Katie Long, a senior at Lisle High School, and an ensemble member for six years, that may be biological science. She feels that Anima has prepared her well. “The patience and discipline that research will take is the same that it takes to give a performance,” she said in a phone interview. “You have to be on the ball and be on your game 100 percent.”