Grace United Methodist Church is currently experiencing a trend that has been affecting churches all over the U.S. High schools and colleges are not producing trained singers to volunteer in church choirs in the high numbers that they once did, even ten years ago. Sadly, some churches have done away with their choirs altogether. At Grace, it is our goal to strive toward excellence in our music ministry and worship, led by the Chancel Choir, aided by choral scholars.
Choral Scholars are music students or in some cases young music graduates, who lead their respective sections in the choir.
Through a Choral Scholars program, Grace is able to invest in the lives and careers of young musicians who are either training for a career in Music or who are underemployed music graduates needing help in launching a music career. A Choral Scholars program is an outreach ministry to our community, and can help us achieve Grace’s 2020 vision of reaching out into our community.
Through this program, we are able to bring young musicians into our church and minister to them at a time in their lives when many young adults are unchurched. A Choral Scholars program also helps to train young musicians to be the church music leaders of the future. In fact, our own Mark Merritt was once a choral scholar.
We have received some seed money to assist in starting a Choral Scholars program at Grace. We believe that we could have choral scholars on all four parts in the choir for $900 per year, per singer.