Cantabile Children's Choir
Click on the links below to jump to a section!
Philosophy History Leadership Summer Musical
Get Involved Awards The Future
Director Mrs. Liegel spent her high school years in a music program developed by Dr. Robert Hamilton who soon after formed The Philadelphia Boys Choir. There she learned the amazing potential on hand when combining quality young voices with excellent training and focused performance opportunities. Cantabile Children's Choir seeks to:
Encourage children to sing well in their "head voice" or "children's voice", building strong, quality vocal instruments that can continue to be shaped as they reach maturity.
Offer children reasonable rehearsal and performance schedules that allow them to simultaneously succeed in academics, athletics, community, and family activities.
Expose children to a wide variety of exciting music from the classics to folk to contemporary choral works drawn from many cultures, time periods, and languages.
Allow children an opportunity to work as a true "team," learning to be flexible and cooperative, aware that they can only succeed together.
Develop in children a deep love for fine music on-stage
and enjoying music as an informed audience member.
Cantabile Children's Choir began in 1993 as "Music & Kids", a natural off-shoot of its parent organization, Theatre & Kids. Originally co-directed Mrs. Susan Liegel and Ms. Valerie Clayton, the choir met at North Penn High School as a Saturday morning offering of North Penn Community Education. Ms. Clayton eventually moved on into opera performance and is now director of the Camden, New Jersey deivision of the Settlement School of Music. However, Mrs. Liegel hs continued to head the choir which is now solely under T&K authority, meets on Tuesday evenings, and has developed a reputation for excellence and enthusiasm.
Always a treble choir for boys and girls grades 3-9, each year brings some 100+ auditioners resulting in choirs ranging from forty to sixty members. Travel locations have included local venues as well as The Outer Banks, Orlando, Washington D.C., Chicago, Toronto, Baltimore, Atlanta, Nashville, Philadelphia, New York City, and Verona, Italy. There they have performed at colleges, libraries, hospitals, schools, malls, retirement homes, opera and symphony halls, seasonal festivals, and even an actual Roman Coliseum! They have performed with renowned Canadian children's singer Norman Foote, with the Moscow Boys Choir, under the director of international choreographer John Jacobson, and in front of some youth music's most distinguished adjudicators including Cincinnati's Henry Leck, Canada's Doreen Rao and Chicago's Judith Willoughby. They have also performed with massed groups of young singers and international choirs as large as 1200!
Auditions are from July to September and the winter holiday season brings a half dozen Delaware Valley performances as does early spring. However, the finale of the year is a four-to-seven day "music journey." Whether a children's choir festival in Valley Forge, a massed choir with the America Sings! program, or a whirlwind tour of Milan, Verona, and Venice, winning Gold against thirty adult choirs from nine nations, Cantabile is always an exciting musical adventure!
Cantabile Director Susan Liegel has been involved with music from her earliest memory. Church choir members Mom and Dad were sure she received piano lessons and had lots of opportunities to sing. Receiving the annual senior music award from the prestigious Frankford Ambassadors of Song and traveling with them throughout South America, she then moved on to an Elementary Education Degree at Grove City College.
While there, she was featured in numerous plays and musicals, taught dance, and met future husband Will in the musical Oklahoma. Together they began Sweet Manna, an incorporated sacred dance and music group performing over 1500 times throughout forty states and Canada for six years. As an ASCAP arranger, she directed the music for their performances in churches and colleges and on television and radio.
The Liegels owned and ran two dinner theatres in Western PA and two more in the Philly suburbs and have performed together in dozens of children's shows and musical revues. Susan has taken graduate and special music courses at over a dozen colleges, accenting her interest in multi-cultutral music and dance, business management, ESL training, creativity, and childhood education. She has taught K-12 music at Phil-Mont Academy near Chestnut Hill for 20 years, is church choir director, and is a popular speaker and seminar leader on adoption and family topics - not surprising since she is the mother to ten children, seven of whom are adopted, special needs kids. Now she is proud granmother to three toddlers. Most recently she was made principal of the elementary division of Phil-Mont Academy.
Assisting in the Administrative Leadership of Cantabile is Mrs. Suzanne Lent, mother, musician, teacher, and Navy veteran. Her contribution to the progtram for fourteen years has been invaluable.
Joining Cantabile in 2009, Assistant Director Theresa DiCosimo is a graduate of Syracuse University. A private voice teacher, accomplished actress, and experienced performing arts teacher, she has delighted our singers with her enthusiasm, poise, and skill.
Early each July, Theatre & Kids presents a fully-produced Broadway-style musical featuring auditioned young adult performers, most of whom are theatre and music majors or grads. The exciting part is that any interested members of Cantabile are automatically the children's chorus for the show! Each summer some twenty-plus youngsters have been Munchkins in The Wiz, clowns in Godspell, the villagers of Once on This Island, the newsboys of Working, the street urchins of Oliver, the Whos in Seussical the Musical, and the captive servants of Aida. Rehearsing for only five evenings plus the production week, our "choir" turns into singing, dancing, musical characters - a golden opportunity with no extra charge for participation.
Cantabile Auditions are held from July until September at the Theatre & Kids camps and at Lansale Presbyterian Church. Interested singers should be entering 3rd through 9th grade and have an unchanged natural voice (alto or soprano). They should be prepared to audition with scales, match simple note progressions, sing "Happy Birthday", and chat with the director for a few minutes. They should also display an ability the blend vocally with others, a maturity of focus, and a readiness to learn and work as a team member. Solo singing ability or choir experience is not neccesary. All children are welcomed and previous members have hailed from diverse ethnic, religious, social, and scholastic backgrounds. Rehearsals are held on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:30PM at Lansdale Presbyterian Church (450 Oak Park Road, Hatfield) which has ample parking and available waiting rooms if needed.
The Cantabile Season lasts from Mid-September through May with a winter holiday break and concerts begin Thanksgiving Eve and usually total eight to twelve venues ending around Memorial Day. Singers provide their own transportation to these local concerts. Those involved in the summer musical continue Tuesday rehearsals until early July. Optonal extended tours of 4-7 days usually occur in April or May and often coincide with Spring school breaks and holidays.
Cost for the Year is only $450 and can be paid in three installments - incredibly inexpensive for excellent music lessons! There is a slight cost for uniform shirts (two styles for less than $40) and singers provide their own black pants and shoes. The optional extended trips have varied in cost from $200 for a two-day Philly festival to $1600 for our Italian adventure. This has often become a great family vacation option with extended families welcome. The Cantabile leaders provide optional fund-raising opportunities througout the year with monies raised going into individual singer accounts. Many have actually earned their entire trip amount in this way.
Information requests can be addressed to the director by calling T&K at 215-858-9528. Individual audition times can be arranged if neccessary.
Gold Medals Include:
Toronto International Music Festival
National Music Festival, Washington, D.C.
The New York Festival of Music
Music Showcase Festivals (four!)
Heritage Children's Choir Festivals - Valley Forge and Chicago
15` Concorse Internazionale Di Canto Corale
Cantabile has won 18 gold medals in its 17 years, often in competition against high school and adult ensembles. Judges often comment on their obvious understanding of varied styles, their ability to sing well in multiple languages, their surprising poise and professionalism, and the difficult yet appropriate repertoire they always share.
The boys and girls of Cantabile build a foundation of discipline and focus that can last a lifetime. Many go on to earn leads in high school and college choirs and shows while others have become music teachers, choir directors, and even professional entertainers. However, all gain confidence, poise, and social skills that they can carry into any career or endeavor.
Cantabile Peforms in Italy
Cantabile Children's Choir is a division on On Stage & Off, Inc.