Volti's Choral Institute for High School Singers provides intensive, content-rich training and performance opportunities for 100 or more high school students over the course of one concentrated, enjoyable weekend. Click to watch a brief video that will show you what it's all about.

Two sessions are available during the 2011/12 school year:
September 23 – 25, 2011: Mixed Choirs – with Stacy Garrop, Guest Composer, and January 6 – 8, 2012: Women's Choirs.
Please note that the January session is for women's voices only.

Volti serves as the resident choir and faculty. The students have the opportunity to work closely with these outstanding young professional singers, who sing with the students during rehearsals as well as leading sectionals and offering private voice lessons. During the September 2011 session, students will work together with the composer Stacy Garrop on two songs she has written to sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay – a rare opportunity to work on music with coaching and insights from the composer herself.  The choirs will also work on a Renaissance polychoral piece, and all choirs will reunite a few weeks later on Saturday November 12 for a public performance in San Francisco, at which each choir will perform separately and then the massed choirs join to perform all the music they worked on during the Choral Institute weekend.  

For the January Choral Institute, the young women will work on a piece especially commissioned for the Institute from young composer Eric Tuan, and all participants will be invited to sing the premiere of the piece in March at the fifth annual Festival of New Music for Treble Voices in Palo Alto.  Both sessions of the Choral Institute are similar in structure. Together with Artistic Director Robert Geary and the high schools' choir conductors, Volti's singers lead rehearsals, give voice classes, and direct seminars designed to challenge and inspire each student. Each participating choir will perform for one another and receive constructively critical evaluations by Volti and Mr. Geary. Throughout the weekend, students rehearse “side by side” with members of Volti, and on Sunday perform the music learned for an open audience (including parents and friends!) at the Camp in Occidental.

Click here to view the Choral Institute brochure

CYO Camp

The CYO-McGucken Center in Occidental is set amidst the majestic redwoods of northern Sonoma County. Participants are housed in groupings of heated rustic cabins, each of which sleeps eight boys or girls. A list of essential items to bring (sleeping bags, etc.) will be provided upon registration. Rehearsals and meals take place in the main lodge, just a few hundred feet away, with its roaring fireplace and green lawns. The camp is equipped with full bathroom facilities, a basketball court, and numerous easy hiking trails.

Additional Benefits

Choral Institute students have the opportunity to perform major choral works with professional orchestras and soloists as members of the San Francisco Choral Society. Tuition is specially waived and music is provided at no cost ($100 value). Participants are also entitled to complimentary tickets to Volti and San Francisco Choral Society concerts (valued $20-$28).

Tuition is $260 per student, which includes instruction, room, and board. Some scholarship aid is available. For further information, or to register your choir (individual students are also welcome), please contact us at barbara@voltisf.org or 415.771.3352.