Uniting Voices Chicago (Josephine Lee, President) is a nonprofit organization that inspires and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to become global leaders through music. Founded in Hyde Park at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement in 1956, Uniting Voices Chicago (formerly Chicago Children’s Choir) has grown from one choir into a vast network of in-school and after-school programs serving thousands of students across the city of Chicago.
The organization has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 diverse youth throughout its 65-year history. Since its founding, the choir has focused on building programs that reflect the racial and economic diversity of Chicago. The majority of youth served are from low-to-moderate income homes and participate completely free of charge. All singers in Uniting Voices Chicago programs receive some level of subsidy. High school seniors enrolled in Uniting Voices Chicago have a 100% graduation and college acceptance rate, becoming global ambassadors who carry on our core values in a wide array of professional fields.
Under the leadership of President and Artistic Director Josephine Lee, Uniting Voices Chicago has achieved new heights and revolutionized the youth choral arts through innovative creative partnerships and new artistic endeavors. Recent projects include 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; performance in a new staged production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS under the direction of Marin Alsop in July 2018 with two frequent creative partners: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ravinia Festival; and collaboration on Chance the Rapper’s GRAMMY winning 2016 mixtape Coloring Book. Uniting Voices Chicago has served as a model for youth choirs across the country including Boston Childrens Chorus, Denver Children’s Choir and Indianapolis Children’s Choir.
