Los Angeles, Nov. 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Tylis Family Foundation announces a $1 million donation to the GRAMMY® Award-winning National Children’s Chorus of the United States of America to establish the Galina Tylis Harmony Fund for full-ride educational scholarships designed for students from underserved and immigrant communities across the United States. The fund honors the memory of Galina Tylis, mother of Al Tylis, co-founder of the Tylis Family Foundation. Mrs. Tylis was a beloved music enthusiast and piano teacher who emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine in 1977.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer and Associate Artistic Director Dr. Pamela Blackstone, the National Children’s Chorus guides over 1,100 students to find their voice and achieve their best through unparalleled vocal training in eight chapter cities nationwide. This is the third seven-figure donation in the history of the NCC — a milestone for the organization, and the first of its kind to any independent choral program in the country. The NCC has previously received an anonymous gift of $1 million in 2016, and $2 million in 2020. The new contribution will be placed in a restricted endowment fund for scholarships.
“The Tylis Family Foundation gift is transformative. It will offer countless school students the life-changing music education available through our programs,” said NCC’s Artistic Director, President, and CEO Luke McEndarfer. “Every child deserves to have music in their life. This gift removes barriers that hold back so many of them from participating in world-class collaborations and performances. The endowment will let us continue building a vibrant nationwide network of young artists who reflect the beautiful diversity in our communities.”
Last spring NCC partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school district in the country, to pilot Project Unison. The program offers the entire NCC experience — including all training and classes, concert uniforms and materials, and travel expenses — fully covered by scholarship funding to families who would otherwise not be able to participate. Students are selected by their school teachers; a sincere interest in singing takes precedence over inherent talent.
While NCC has always provided scholarships to anyone in need, the Tylis Family Foundation gift allows the nonprofit to exponentially increase the impact of its aid. The organization plans to expand Project Unison within LAUSD and also partner with other school districts and organizations in cities across the country.
“My mother loved music and it brought her so much joy to see the NCC perform. I am grateful that her legacy will be honored through this gift and will allow children, regardless of need, to benefit from the lasting positive impact provided by the NCC,” says Al Tylis. “The gift also honors our family’s experience as immigrants to this country and she would have been thrilled to provide immigrant children these incredible opportunities,” he adds.
The Tylis Family Foundation funds organizations that provide educational, recreational and health care services, as well as social projects and endeavors that make a positive, lasting impact in the lives of children and families.
Through the NCC, students connect with each other, growing as artists and as citizens. The young vocalists, ages 5 to 18, engage in a superlative regimen that includes an extensive musicianship curriculum. The organization consists of 33 choirs based in the chapter cities of Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Boston, and Chicago. Each chorister learns the same repertoire at each level and is uniformly trained so that members may participate in any concert across the nation and essentially design their own concert season.
Season 2023/24 marks McEndarfer’s 20th anniversary as Artistic Director. The NCC recently released Illumine, its first holiday album. In December, they’ll sing in festive concert appearances within the NCC’s chapter cities. In May, students of the Senior Division will join forces at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium for their annual all-city event that provides a joyous culmination of the season. During the summer of 2024, the NCC will also appear in Norway and Denmark as part of a unique cultural experience that will feature local and high-profile musical collaborations.
Last season NCC students performed concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall. They toured the U.K., joined their heroes — the hit group VOCES8 — in a joint concert in London, and recorded an album at the historic Abbey Road Studios. NCC students sang on the 2022 GRAMMY-winning album (best choral performance) Mahler: Symphony No. 8, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel.
About the National Children’s Chorus
The GRAMMY® Award-winning National Children’s Chorus, under the leadership of Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer and Associate Artistic Director Dr. Pamela Blackstone, has quickly become one of the world’s leading children’s choirs. Among the most exciting and fastest-growing music institutions for youth in the nation, the chorus provides its unparalleled training to more than 1,100 students, comprising 32 choirs based in the chapter cities of Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Boston and Chicago. The NCC’s groundbreaking Season 2023/24, entitled Thrive, focuses on the impact of the chorus’ artistry, featuring an array of stunning repertoire that demonstrates the organization’s firm commitment to new music, world culture, and extraordinary collaborations.
Performing locally and abroad, the National Children’s Chorus is one of few youth arts organizations in America to have its concert series presented at professional music halls, working with some of the finest conductors, composers and orchestras. Recent venues include Royce Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; as well as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, sharing the stage and studio with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, American Youth Symphony, VOCES8 and New York City Master Chorale, among others.
Students of the National Children’s Chorus are represented by more than three hundred schools throughout its cities and meet weekly for rehearsal and musicianship study. The extensive curriculum includes college-level conducting, composition, music theory, sight-singing in the Kodály Method, and individual voice training in the bel canto style. Through a holistic approach to cultivating the unique potential within each child, graduates from the program are regularly accepted at top conservatories, colleges and universities.
Each summer, Senior Division ensembles of the National Children’s Chorus travel internationally, expanding the students’ cultural awareness and worldly experience. Since 2015, the children have performed at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford and St. John’s Smith Square in London, England; the Great Wall of China in Beijing and the Ancient City Wall in Xi’an, China; St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, and St. Cecilia’s Music Conservatory in Rome, Italy; the Berlin Wall in Germany and Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, as well as sites in Prague, Czech Republic and Budapest, Hungary; the Korean Demilitarized Zone, Mapo Art Center in Seoul, South Korea, and in Japan, Kyoto Concert Hall and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall; the Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, and other sites in Spain and Portugal.
Luke McEndarfer
Luke McEndarfer is a GRAMMY® Award-winning American conductor and one of the most compelling visionaries in the classical music world today. His dynamic career spanning over two decades has been shaped by an unwavering commitment to ambitious innovation, artistic creativity, and musical excellence. Currently, he serves as Artistic Director, President and CEO of the National Children’s Chorus, one of the fastest-growing and most successful youth arts organizations in the United States. His conducting collaborations include work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, American Youth Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Opera Company, New York City Master Chorale, VOCES8, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, the Joffrey Ballet, Opera Parallèle, Kronos String Quartet, and Stephen Petronio Dance Company. Over the years, he has prepared choruses and soloists for Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, James Conlon, Stephen Layton, David Alan Miller, Ibrahim Maalouf, John Rutter, Helmuth Rilling, David Willcocks, Eric Whitacre and the late Paul Salamunovich. To date, his premiere conducting performances include music by Morten Lauridsen, Sharon Farber, James Wright, Sarah Quartel, Stephen Cohn, Thomas Hewitt Jones, Daniel Brewbaker, Sage Lewis, Shawn Kirchner, Paul Gibson, Rufus Wainwright, and Nico Muhly.
In 2004, McEndarfer was appointed director of the acclaimed Paulist Choristers, and in 2008 his dream to create the National Children’s Chorus took flight. Since then, the NCC has grown from only sixteen families in Los Angeles to over one thousand across the country, offering its students cutting-edge training and life-changing musical experiences. Under McEndarfer’s leadership, the NCC has built an unparalleled educational platform, mindfully leading young singers from the age of five, and guiding them through to the college level. McEndarfer’s Senior Division vocalists are GRAMMY® Award-winning, having received music’s highest honor for Best Choral Performance in 2022. Across the nation, they comprise one of the most accomplished youth choruses in the world, with performances at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Royce Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. International debuts have taken place throughout Europe, including Oxford, London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, the Vatican City, Rome, Florence, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Lisbon, Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona; and in Asia, Beijing, Xi’an, the Korean DMZ, Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto. In the summer of 2024, students will perform in Denmark and Norway. In 2020, McEndarfer initiated the building of a new annual opera academy, starting in Vail, Colorado, that would grow to engage developing voices in the art of opera, curated with an extraordinary curriculum designed exclusively for youth education. The program aims to achieve global impact, partly by including new works and commissions staged and performed each year, with the goal of significantly expanding operatic repertoire dedicated for young people.
Though the National Children’s Chorus has been his primary focus the last several years, McEndarfer’s background and experience encompass numerous conducting appearances on both coasts featuring adult choral and symphonic masterworks. Upcoming plans include the launch of new programs within this genre of choral music as a natural extension of his expanding scope of work with the NCC, and deep passion for the full choral repertoire. Equally at home in the studio, he has worked on several motion picture soundtracks, such as Escape from Tomorrow, Snowmen, and Paramount Pictures’ feature film Imagine That, starring Eddie Murphy. Television credits include conducting performances and studio appearances with CNN, CBS, ABC, and Fox, as well as NBC’s former Tonight Show with Jay Leno. McEndarfer has also conducted in performance with Josh Groban, opened for John Legend, and been featured on Entertainment Tonight for the Oscars in 2014. At charity events hosting fashion shows by Oscar de la Renta, he has arranged musical presentations for Princess Charlene of Monaco, former First Lady Laura Bush, and other distinguished honorees. In 2019, McEndarfer was honored with an invitation to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange after conducting the NCC in “Carol of the Bells” on a day the organization was formally recognized for its excellence in nonprofit growth and arts management.
Since the age of six, McEndarfer has studied piano extensively, winning competitions and musical honors with the Music Teachers’ Association of California. He is a two-time graduate of UCLA, holding a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and a Master of Music degree in conducting, the latter with full scholarship under the tutelage of Donald Neuen. Studying privately, McEndarfer has been the conducting pupil of Kenneth Kiesler and Marianne Ploger at the University of Michigan, Lucinda Carver at USC, Simon Carrington at Yale, and the late Paul Salamunovich. September through June, McEndarfer manages a demanding work and travel schedule that requires his presence in all NCC cities of operation.
Attachments
- National Children’s Chorus logo
- National Children’s Chorus Performs at the National Cherry Blossom Festival
