Celebrate the vibrancy of the winter season and the wonder of young voices coming together with Songs of the Season, featuring Voice of Chicago, our world-renowned citywide ensemble of high schoolers, and select Neighborhood Choir singers! Songs of the Season is a rousing concert taking place at the Harris Theater on Saturday, December 14 of holiday hits, choral classics, and unexpected seasonal tunes.
This program is sold out. Extremely limited tickets will be available at the door for purchase. Please arrive when the Harris Theater box office opens at 6pm.
Tickets are available for purchase on a sliding-scale*, including tickets as low as $5 before fees. Advance tickets are currently sold out. The Harris Theatre box office will be open on the day of the show.
*Uniting Voices Chicago has a pay-what-you-can policy, allowing guests to pay as much or as little as they like per ticket.*
The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is located at 205 East Randolph at the north end of Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, and is accessible via public transportation, car, bike, or on foot. For more information, including parking, please visit their website.
Uniting Voices Chicago and the Harris Theater strive to make music and performance accessible to anyone who wants it. To request accommodations, please email access@harristheaterchicago.org.
Use this text-only program to access translations using your web browser.
Get Amp’d
Join our Neighborhood Choir Program today!
12 locations across Chicago
Sliding-scale tuition | 2 rehearsals per week | Ages 8-18
Learn more and register - visit unitingvoiceschicago.org/join
About Uniting Voices Chicago
Founded in 1956 at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Uniting Voices Chicago (formerly Chicago Children’s Choir) empowers and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to find their voice and celebrate their common humanity through the power of music. As a leading nonprofit organization, we serve thousands of youth ages 6-18 from every zip code of Chicago through transformative and accessible music education programs and performance opportunities.
After the Show
Get Amp’d Solo Showcase
January 12 | Metro Chicago
Get Amp'd to join us for this Solo Showcase at the iconic Metro Chicago! Singers from every level of our programs will take center stage in front of a panel of judges made up of music professionals and local legends, receiving invaluable feedback that will help them fine-tune their craft as individual performers.
Tickets are $10* per person, available for purchase at the concert.
*Uniting Voices Chicago has a pay-what-you-can policy
Black Futures Concert Series
February 7, 10 & 11 | Chicago Symphony Center
Our annual concert series honoring and celebrating Africana music and its indelible impact on Chicago and the world returns on the Symphony Center stage, as Afrofuturism: The Freedom Metropolis. Learn more about this and other exciting events at unitingvoiceschicago.org/events.
Chicago’s harmonious future begins with you
Nearly 80 percent of Uniting Voices Chicago’s operating budget is funded through charitable donations from generous individuals, corporate partners and foundations. Join our donor community!
Our singer community
3500+ youth served | Ages 6-19 | 85+ schools | 140+ ensembles | 100% graduation rate
Your gifts make an immediate impact. Your donation provides
$5: a snack for a singer at rehearsal
$25: a meal for a singer at a performance
$50: sheet music for a year
$100: performance shoes to give them confidence onstage
$250: Bus transportation for one event
$500: one student scholarship for the Bridging America National Tour
$1000: one student experience for a full year of Neighborhood Choir Program
Instrumental
Overture
Ralph Blane & Hugh Martin/Mykola Leontovych/Richard Ashcroft, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards/Kristen Jane Anderson- Lopez & Robert Joseph Lopez/Jean Christophe Beck & Frode Fjellheim; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III
Voice of Chicago, Dimension, and select Neighborhood Choir Program singers
We Are
W. Mitchell Owens III
Voice of Chicago and alumni of Uniting Voices Chicago
Chichester Psalms
Leonard Bernstein
Total Praise/Brighter Day
Richard Smallwood/Kirk Franklin; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III
Voice of Chicago
Nassam Aalayna al-Hawa Assi Rahbani & Mansour Rahbani; transcr. Wassim Njeim; soloist Mark Tourjman, Jerusalem Youth Chorus alum
Viva la Vida
Guy Rupert Berryman, Jonathan Mark Buckland, William Champion & Christopher A. J. Martin; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III; choreography by Judy Hanson
Nothing is Lost
Steve Angello, Simon Franglen, Axel Christofer Hedfors, Sebastian Carmine Ingrosso, Fragogiannis Steve Patrik Josefsson & Abel Tesfaye; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III; choreography by Judy Hanson
Voice of Chicago, Dimension, and select Neighborhood Choir Program singers
Panis Angelicus
César Franck; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III; soloist Vasil Garvanliev, Uniting Voices Chicago alum
Dimension and select Neighborhood Choir Program singers
Ripple (from Spirited)
Benj Pasek & Justin Paul; choreography by Farlanda Buchannon and Judy Hanson
Voice of Chicago, Dimension, and select Neighborhood Choir Program singers
Internacionales
Bomba Estéreo; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III; choreography by Farlanda Buchannon
INTERMISSION
Voice of Chicago
Winter Wonderland
Felix Bernard & Richard B. Smith; arr. Greg Jasperse
Voice of Chicago, Encore
The Christmas Song
Mel Thorme & Robert Wells; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III
Voice of Chicago, Dimension, and select Neighborhood Choir Program singers
Christmas Day
Vasil Garvanliev, W. Mitchell Owens III & Josephine Lee; soloist Vasil Garvanliev, Uniting Voices Chicago alum
Rankin Bass Spectacular
Music by Johnny Marks, Maury Laws, J. Fred Coots, Steve Nelson, Jay W. Johnson; lyrics by Robert L. May, Jules Bass, Haven Gillespie, Walter “Jack” Rollins, Billy Hayes; arr. Greg Jasperse; concept and choreography by Judy Hanson
All
Go Tell It
African-American spiritual; arr. W. Mitchell Owens III
Voice of Chicago
Amir Anderson +
Almond Ball
Charlie Blackburn
Sofia Bondurant +*
Vivienne Bonneur +
Morgan
Boyd Shields +
Ren Boraz +
Amalie Brennan
Blaze Brown
Margaret Cafarelli
Daelyn Calloway *
Elisabeth Cami +*
Rishi Chandra +*
Chloe Combs +
Christopher Copeland
Stella Corotis +
Jamion Cotten +*
Annie DeMarea +*
Tobin Ferrall +
Lila Finegold +*
Victoria Gekker +
Kennedy Grooms
Mercedes Gong +
Sofia Gutierrez +*
Jayden Hatcher +*
Lucy Hawk
Josiah Hill
Theo Hinerfeld +*
Maude Hovey-Bradshaw +
Alethia Ikem +
Riley Jacobson +
Mira Jain +
Hana Javed +
Ayla Kaynor
Camille Kejo +
Bridie Kelly
Ūla Kerelis
Emily Kirkpatrick +*
Vali Kizilbash
Eleanor Koss +
Lydia Kuhr +
Salome Kuhr +
Bennet Lee McConkey *
Nora Lerner +
Raiva Lessing +
J Licklider +*
Austin Lok
Isabel Loza +
Vivienne Lynch
Simone Marino-Beard
Landyn McClain
Charlotte Miller +
Myah Morris *
Danielle Murray
Elizabeth Neveu
Zoey Obregon +
Jackson O’Brien +
Wyatt Parr +*
Klimek Pawlina
Abigail Pazmino
Mia Pensinger-Sok
Karina Perez *
Karina Ramirez
Morgan Robinson +*
Myra Sahai +*
Steph Salajean
Atlas Salomon +
Rene Saussy
Lucy Shirrell
Esme Siegelin +
Sophia Smith +
Avery Soellner +*
Ella St. John
Ari Stanton-Thomas +
Naava Stein
Katherine Talmers +*
Asa Troccoli +*
Edie Vanada
Aris Velasquez
Matilde Velez-Lauria +*
Kamryn Walker
Eliot Warren +*
Zoey Wax
Kaylee Wellington
+Encore/ *Groove
Dimension
Pierre Colbert
Calvin DuFloth
Jaxon DuFloth
Andrez Elliott
Parker Felker
Julius Frace
Edison Gong
Zion Hohenkirk
Luke Hojnacki
Vikram Konkimalla
Josiah Mitchell
Axel McGrane
Seamus O’Shea
Lashawn Pritchett
Rohan Rodrigo
Anthony Rosario
Kainoah Rutledge
Trey Sawyer
Maxwell Stone
George Stoops
Owen Thomas
Arjun Venugopal
Marko Zafirovski
Neighborhood Choir Program Singers
James Almond
Skye Andronache
Gaia Ansah
Sienna Arango
Elizabeth Awa
Thea Black
Ramona Blanding
Elsa Bove
Aya Burns
Sophia Chandler
Penelope Charboneau
Gianna Chumil
Ben Corbett
Isis Culbert
Vera Cyrenne
Christian Davis
Samantha Faris
Mayumi Felder
Leyla Foley
Reed Francez
Jared Gong
Maude Gorczowski
Chase Griggs
Esther Hague
Ellie Haro
Emily Herrera
Everell Hill
Dahlia Hirsch
Amelia Holly
Marlin Hortillo
Ivan Johnson
ChiNasa Jones
Joslyn Kaynor
Lillian Krane
Suhail Kuznetsov
Josie LaRue
Iris Lee
Taraji Lee
Avery Levitt
Nella Maheshwary
Sahana Malkani
Pearl Marino-Beard
Isadora Marta
Frances Mulcahey
Lena Nixon
Zoe Nott
Morgan Parker
Ehlery Petersen
Afua Rashid
Jonas Rennert-May
Meera Revuluri
Lou Roberts
Sofía Salinas
Rebecca Saucedo
Emilia Schuele Bermeo
Edith Scranton
Shreya Sharma
Helena Sheikh
Ava Sherman
Eleanor Shirrell
Sophia Smith
Addison Sprague
Marina Suárez Espinosa
Elise Thomas
Yanna Tsikhun
Katelynn Walters
Kyndal Whitmore
Eleyna Williams
Jane Wiltrout
Victor Wolbert
Anne Zweidinger
Alumni
Elisabeth Baker
Spencer Bibbs
Jonathan Brooks
Adina Cohen
Aubry Crain
Jihan DuBose
George Galloway
Patrick Graney-Dolan
Tori Hampton
Bailey Haynes
Andrea Hernandez
Katie Moynihan
Monica Reyes
Ruth Santiago
Amabel Sebastian
Annika Sevig
Nicki Sekhar
Stephanie Schroeder
Ryan Warren
Kristin Weed
Fatima White
Elijah Williams
Musicians
Principal Pianist
John Goodwin
Violin
Yuriy Geyer
Anna Piotrowski
Julia Koehler
Karen Szczech
Jessica Gao
Viola
Oana Tatu
Tamila Umarkhanova
Cello
Meena Cho
Oleksii Poltavchenko
Double Bass
Ben Foerster
Harp
Raquel Coleman
Margot Sherman
Trumpet
Tommy Chapski
Bianca Zhinin
Adam Higgins
Trombone
Asha Egmont
Erich Coffman
Caleb McMahon
Percussion
Mitchell Owens
Ashwin Mahidhara
Yechan Kim
Bass
Tim Seisser
Guitar
Dave Hiltebrand
Synth
Brandon Lampkin
Crew
Sara Zimmerman, Director of Production
Bryan Farina, Lead Audio Engineer
Trent Reed, Monitor Engineer
Matthew Miller, Lighting Designer
Based in Chicago, IL, Matt is thrilled to once again be working with Uniting Voices. Matt’s lighting portfolio includes a broad variety of projects in the industry including Dance, Theatre, Music, TV, Live Events, Installations, Corporate Productions, and more. His design credits include work for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Yeager Design, The Joffrey Ballet, Tank & the Bangas, Microsoft, Ballet Idaho, Sleeping at Last, Leslie Odom Jr, Mercedes, Kurt Elling, The Auditorium Theatre, Starbucks, Atlanta Ballet, Verizon, The Chicago Philharmonic, Airbnb, & Google, to name a few. Matt has toured extensively throughout the US and internationally. He is an alumnus of the University of Nebraska Lincoln, as well as a proud member of United Scenic Artists 829. Special thanks to his wife Marisa and children, Milo & Amelia. www.mmiller-lighting.com
Conductors
Josephine Lee, President
Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated conductor, pianist, singer, producer and non-profit leader Josephine Lee has made a widespread impact in the fields of music and education through an array of engagements across the globe. Ms. Lee has worked with a sterling roster of international artists and currently serves as President of Uniting Voices (formerly Chicago Children’s Choir), a nonprofit organization that empowers and unites 3000+ diverse youth annually to find their voice and celebrate their common humanity through the power of music.
Through her vision for Uniting Voices, Ms. Lee has doubled the number of students served, tripled the organization’s budget and established Uniting Voices Chicago as one of the city’s premier civic and cultural institutions, creating a performance-based learning experience built around innovative creative partnerships. Lee led Uniting Voices Chicago singers in performances of Carmina Burana with Choral Arts Society at the Kennedy Center; recordings of James Lee III’s Pitch In with Pacifica Quartet and Stacy Garrop’s Terra Nostra with classical label Cedille Records; Colombian pop superstar Karol G on Saturday Night Live and at Lollapalooza (2023); with Peter CottonTale on the viral work Together in Google’s Year in Search video (2020) and on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (2021); PBS Great Performances national broadcast of Bernstein’s Mass with Ravinia Festival (2020); with Bobby McFerrin & The SpiritYouAll Band at Ravinia Festival (2019); recording of Chance the Rapper’s debut studio album The Big Day (2019) and Grammy Award-winning Coloring Book (2016); the world premiere of a hip hop version of Homer’s Odyssey Long Way Home (2018); the original world musical Sita Ram with Lookingglass Theatre (2003, 2006, 2012); and performances with Yo Yo Ma, Luciano Pavarotti, Solange, Al Green, Eddie Vedder, Wyclef Jean, Buddy Guy, the Eagles, Andrea Bocelli, and more. Uniting Voices recently released Ms. Lee’s groundbreaking composition, Multiverse, across all streaming platforms. For over two decades, Ms. Lee has prepared Uniting Voices Chicago ensembles to serve as the youth ensemble for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among other cultural cornerstones. Ms. Lee uses music as a tool for cultural diplomacy; Uniting Voices was the first non-Korean civilian group to be granted permission to enter the Yeolsei Observation Platform in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. In recognition of her leadership, Ms. Lee received the Kennedy Center’s National Committee for the Performing Arts Award for Arts Advocacy, the Roman Nomitch Fellowship to attend the Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program, the Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal from the University of Chicago, the 3Arts Artist Award from MacArthur Foundation, and other esteemed awards.
Judy Hanson, Senior Director
As Senior Director of Uniting Voices Chicago, Judy Hanson collaborates with the President to create the artistic vision for the overall organization and co-directs the world-renowned Voice of Chicago. She serves as stage director and one of the choreographers, and co-directs select ensembles within this group including Groove, which she developed to perform more difficult choreography. In 2006, Ms. Hanson received a Jeff Award nomination (Choral Choreography) for Uniting Voices Chicago's original world musical, Sita Ram. In addition to her work with Voice of Chicago and the organization’s artistic initiatives, Ms. Hanson works her magic with all of the choir's singers in special Uniting Voices Chicago events such as the Black History Month Concert Series and Paint the Town Red.
Ms. Hanson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from the University of Illinois and a Master of Music degree in Music Education from Northwestern University. In 1993, Ms. Hanson received the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching—an award given each year to 10 outstanding Chicago area teachers. From 1985 through 2001, Ms. Hanson was the Director of Vocal Music at Eisenhower Junior High School in Darien, IL, where she was the conductor for six choirs and produced eight musicals. Eisenhower choirs performed at the 1996 Illinois ACDA Fall Convention, at Walt Disney World Resort, and were selected on three separate occasions for the Chicago production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, starring Donny Osmond.
Farlanda Buchannon, Groove Associate Conductor
Born and raised in Auburn, AL, Farlanda Buchannon found his love for the arts through vast choral experiences and the harmonious melodies of Southern gospel music in church. Growing up, he had exposure to various performance venues, most notably the Grand Ole Opry, as a singer/dancer in his high school show choir, Auburn Varsity Singers. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Music with a concentration in Vocal Performance. For the last four years, Farlanda has traveled throughout the southern United States and beyond as a choreographer and vocal coach for several middle and high school show choirs.
In addition to his conductor commitments, Farlanda serves as the in-house choreographer for Uniting Voices Chicago. He believes that teaching students from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds through diverse choral literature builds community and facilitates creativity. He also believes his identity as an African-American male plays an important role in his work as an educator.