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Mission & History
The Children's Chorus of Washington nurtures artistic excellence and empowers young singers by celebrating our shared humanity and the value of every voice.
About CCW
Children’s Chorus of Washington (CCW) provides outstanding music education and performance opportunities for children in grades K-12 in the nation’s capital region, regardless of background, economic status, or prior experience. Through its auditioned ensembles and chorus classes CCW fosters students’ growth as musicians and leaders by emphasizing artistic excellence, personal responsibility, and working together toward a common goal. Internationally recognized and critically acclaimed for its outstanding artistry, CCW collaborates frequently with our community’s leading arts organizations and artists, and maintains an active performance schedule that reaches thousands of audience members in marquee and neighborhood venues across the city and beyond. Each year, over 250 students in Greater Washington benefit directly from CCW instruction. CCW is committed to providing choral music education to the broader DC community through its partnership with DC Public Schools and need-based scholarships for its auditioned ensembles. CCW was founded in 1995 by Joan Gregoryk, and is now under the artistic leadership of Margaret Nomura Clark.
CCW made its debut at The Kennedy Center in November 1996 in a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’
A Sea Symphony with The Washington Chorus. Since then, CCW has distinguished itself as one of our country’s premier youth choruses by producing its own concerts, commissioning works by leading composers, partnering with our community’s leading adult choruses and orchestras, and touring nationally and internationally. Recent appearances include WETA’s Songs of the Season, Britten’s
War Requiem with National Symphony Orchestra and The Choral Arts Society of Washington at The Kennedy Center; the National Anthem at Nationals Park, and a featured performance in the US Army Band’s American Holiday Festival.
CCW is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including Best Choral Group by the Washington Area Music Awards in 2012, the Greater Washington Area Choral Excellence Award for Best Educational Outreach in 2012 and 2014; an Increased Access to Music Instruction grant from the DC Deputy Mayor for Education in 2016; grantee of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts Innovation and Management Program in 2018 and 2020; and one of the best small charities in the Greater Washington region in the 2019/2020 Catalogue for Philanthropy.
Our Touring and Commissioning History
Since our founding, providing opportunities for students to travel internationally and share their music with the world has been a major focus. Below is a list of the cities and countries the Children's Chorus of Washington has visited:
Italy 1999
Vienna / Salzburg / Prague 2002
Wales / London 2004
Brazil / Argentina 2006
Italy 2008
South Africa 2010
China 2013
France 2015
South Africa 2018
Prague 2022
Spain 2024 (forthcoming)
As a commissioning body, CCW has made important contributions to the evolution of youth choral repertoire. The following is a record of our commissioning history:
Tues Petrus (Robert Shafer) 2001
The Nightingale (Imant Raminsh) 2005
Bethlehem Today (Michael Wu) 2006
Ojos Azules (Stephen Hatfield) 2006
Sir Christemus (David Brunner) 2007
Discovered (Ysaye M. Barnwell) 2007
Three Studies (Olii Kortekangas) 2011
The Truth From Above (arr. Michael Wu) 2013
Wonderful Day Out With Nature (Nathan Wang) 2013
The Gift to Sing (Andrea Ramsey) 2015
Dream A New World Trilogy (Dominick DiOrio) 2019
Our Founder
Joan Gregoryk
Joan Gregoryk, Founder & Artistic Director Emerita of the Children’s Chorus of Washington (CCW), is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of children’s vocal music. Ms. Gregoryk taught for many years at Chevy Chase Elementary School where her work with the school’s chorus won her considerable acclaim within professional music organizations, as well as invitations to perform throughout the United States and Europe. She prepared members of the Chevy Chase Chorus for the Grammy Award-nominated CD and film soundtrack recording of Mussorgsky’s Boris Gudunov with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra. Building on these accomplishments, she founded CCW in 1995 with the goal of developing the top children’s vocal ensemble in the Nation’s Capital. Since then, Ms. Gregoryk prepared choristers for performances with leading conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Julian Wachner, Leonard Slatkin, Scott Tucker, Norman Scribner, John Rutter, Valery Gergiev, and Philip Glass.
Ms. Gregoryk was in high demand as a workshop leader and guest conductor in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She conducted numerous district and state children’s honors choruses, and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Children’s Chorus in the Southern, Southwestern, and Eastern Divisions. In 2017, she conducted the National Honors Children’s Chorus at the ACDA National Conference in Minneapolis, MN.
A leading authority on children’s vocal development and children’s choruses, Ms. Gregoryk taught numerous courses and authored formative texts and publications on these subjects. She received many honors including Outstanding Arts Educator in the United States from the Rockefeller Brothers Funds Awards in Arts Education, the Washington Area Music Award (Wammies), the Greater Washington Choral Excellence Award, the Maryland Outstanding Elementary Music Educator Award, the Conservatory Medal of Excellence from Shenandoah University, and the 2015 DC Area Choral Excellence “Ovation” Award for her outstanding contributions to choral music. Ms. Gregoryk was named a 2015 Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine.
She holds both a Bachelor of Music from St. Catherine University where she received an Outstanding Alumnae Award, and a Master of Arts in Music Education from the University of Maryland. Ms. Gregoryk was an Artist-Teacher Associate at the Choral Music Experience Institute founded by Dr. Doreen Rao.
Ms. Gregoryk “passed the baton” to Margaret Nomura Clark in July 2016 at the conclusion of CCW’s 20th Anniversary Season. In 2021, CCW founded a scholarship fund named in her honor.
4910 Massachusetts Ave NW
Suite 316
Washington, DC 20016
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