The El Faro Youth Chorus helps children pursue their love of music and positively impacts their mental health.
The El Faro Youth Chorus is an outreach program of Coro Lux, a nonprofit choir. The program works with kids between the ages of 7 to 18, to teach them a variety of music styles and how to sing in different languages, according to a KOB 4 report. Their style of instruction includes a trauma-informed approach that makes it unique.
Gabrielle Dietrich, the conductor of the El Faro Youth Chorus, told KOB that when someone misbehaves in a traditional classroom environment, instructors might say, “Knock that off, stop it.”
“The trauma-informed perspective asks us to dig a little deeper and ask a few more questions about where that behavior comes from, so rather than what’s wrong with you, we ask, what happened to you?” Dietrich explained.
The El Faro Youth Chorus also has a broader mission as explained on its website.
“Music and singing are wonderful ways of sharing our own stories and the stories of people long ago, far away, right here, and right now,” the group’s website states. “Young people have an amazing capacity to expand their own perspectives and grow their own voices through the music they learn, and that is exactly our intention and our purpose in El Faro.”
The El Faro Youth Chorus rehearses Thursday afternoons at St. Paul Lutheran Church. According to the group’s website, there is no requirement to be a trained singer to join.
“If you think that you can’t do music, I beg to differ and whoever told you that a long time ago was wrong,” Bradley Ellingboe, founder of Coro Lux, told KOB. “Everyone can be involved in some way, even if it’s just tapping your foot.”
For information about the youth chorus, email Dietrich at gdietrich227@gmail.com for more information.
