Syracuse Children’s Chorus aims for diversity

Mowery should know. Based on the chorus’ stature as a trendsetter in choral music education, Mowery left her post as director of children’s and youth music at All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., to become full-time artistic director of the SCC last July.

For Mowery, the final concert is a realization of a first-year goal to reach new and diverse communities of students. She started by partnering with the Imagine Syracuse Young Musicians Project at Cathedral Academy at Pompei, which has an international student body.

Mowery did not intend to conduct children’s choirs when she was studying for a graduate degree in church music at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. She reconsidered her plans after a children’s choir class with Helen Kemp, well-known for her work in the field.