If your child is older than 8 but has not yet entered the 6th grade (currently in 2 nd through 5 th grade), he/she is eligible for the Training Chorus, our beginning choir that all new members participate in for one year before moving to another level. We only accept members once a year to this ensemble. We begin the process in March by mailing recommendation letters to the school music teachers to distribute. If your child is recommended, you would fill out the application form and mail it to us, then you would attend an orientation/audition session scheduled in May after our spring concert. There you would receive a membership form if we think we are a good fit for each other. Forms are due by June 1 with payment for enrollment the following fall. This would allow your child to participate in our summer camp program, which is included in our annual tuition if you adhere to the deadlines. Tuition is the same for late enrollees and you do not get a discount if you do not participate in Summer Camp. Camp is an opportunity the chorus provides but unlike the other performance opportunities we provide during the school year, camp is optional. If you find out about our program later in the summer, we do hold late orientations for folks who missed the May orientation, so please contact us at officemanager@fredcc.org and we'll fill you in on the next orientation date.

We encourage you to ask your music teacher about a recommendation for your child. If your child does not attend public school in Frederick County , email us your name and mailing address and we can send you an application. We ask you to please obtain the recommendation of a music professional in your child's life before applying; someone like a private instrument teacher, or church choir director.

Our Summer Chorus Camp is run through Frederick County Parks and Rec. department and lasts for one week with a concert or memorized music at the end of the week. If your child enrolls in the chorus and wishes to participate in camp, they must sign up THROUGH THE CHORUS so we can enroll you in camp at no charge to you. Children participate in team building and brainteaser kinds of games (the kinds that keep both smart kids and active kids entertained) learn how to drum on big congas, work on their acting and drama skills, and much more! The kids always love it. The 2008 theme was "Opera Rocks", which focused on the drama of famous operas and singing songs from them arranged for chorus and piano, with acting included. We taught that opera isn't just a bunch of overweight people in horned hats singing at the top of their lungs with wobbly voices. Opera has a lot more to offer in the form of entertainment and pleasing music!

If you miss the deadlines or attend camp and then become interested in joining, we will conduct a late orientation session in mid July, after the second camp to recruit singers. Please contact us and we will give you more information.

If your son has a changed voice (singing tenor or bass), we would audition him to join our Chamber Singers the following fall. The Chamber Singers is an auditioned group of High School girls and boys with changed voices. (Some boys are in middle school when their voices change but we include them as long as they pass the audition.) The Chamber Singers learn their music without the help of practice CD's so they must be able to read music and learn their part at home without our help. Even more important is the ability to match pitch and sing independently. These skills are all evaluated in an audition.

We are sorry but at this time we cannot accept girls directly into the Chamber Singers because of enrollment numbers. Girls who have moved up through the children's chorus receive “first dibs” on the places we have available for female voices. We prefer not to stress out our young male voices by asking them to sing over too many female voices to create a balanced sound. Sorry ladies!

The only program that accepts members mid-year is Little Music Makers, the first program mentioned. We have found over the last 22 years that if we allow children to join mid-year, they do not develop friendships quickly, because the social dynamic between the other singers has already had several months to develop, they usually feel behind the other singers in skill, and they usually do not continue to sing with us. To avoid this disappointment for both the singer and the director, we ask students to join at the beginning of the year.

FINANCIAL AIDE and DELAYED PAYMENTS:
The chorus offers several scholarships a year based on financial need. Our goal is to keep this program at a reasonable enough cost so that anyone can participate. If the cost is such that your child would not be able to participate without financial assistance, please make sure you submit a scholarship request form and a copy of your most recent tax form. These forms are available at orientation but you will need to request it after the session. Please don't be intimidated or embarrassed, we just want to match your face with your form and talk to you a little bit so we can anticipate the number of scholarships we will be asked to provide. This allows us to give you a quicker response once you submit your form. We ask that if you are able to pay anything at all, that you do so, so that we are able to grant as many scholarships as possible. So far, we have been able to grant enough scholarship money to all that have requested so that each child could participate.

If you are able to pay tuition, but not all at once, you can create a payment plan for your family. There is a form to fill out that you need to collect at orientation and will send with your enrollment form and first installment, detailing your plans. If there is any problem with the plan you make for yourself, we will call you. If not, we will expect to receive your payments as you've specified on the form, without a reminder.