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FEBRUARY 25, 2003
Contact: John Sparks 212-213-6921 (New York, NY)
or Robin Perry 202-331-7577 (Washington, DC)
Washington, DC - A new national study finds that choral singing is the top choice for participation in the performing arts by adults and children, with an estimated 28.5 million regularly performing in a chorus. The study also estimates the number of choruses in the U.S. to be 250,000, marking the first time the total number has been determined.
Surprisingly, 44 percent of the choral singers surveyed in the study reported singing regularly with more than one chorus, with 10 percent participating in three or more separate choral organizations each year.
These findings and others were announced in Washington, DC this week by Chorus America, the national service organization for choruses. The study, the first of its kind, sought to identify the scope of choral participation, public attitudes about choral music, and the key motivations and behaviors of choral participants. Professional research firms conducted the study in 2002, using two national phone surveys of the general public, hundreds of in-depth interviews with choral singers, and six focus groups.
"Aside from the large numbers of Americans who are involved in choral singing, we think the most important finding with long-term implications is the role of education and families in early exposure to the arts," said John Alexander, president of Chorus America. "This study provides the most useful evidence so far about the power of singing to influence people's lives, and suggests the vital role that parents and schools can play in its early introduction in a meaningful way."
The Study's Major Findings Include:
- An estimated 28.5 million Americans regularly perform with a choir or chorus, more than any other art form.
- The 250,000 choruses include an estimated 12,000 professional and volunteer community choruses, more than 38,000 school choruses, and 200,000 church choirs.
- Early exposure to choral singing is the dominant common factor among adults who participate in choruses, with more than half of the respondents reporting growing up in households where someone regularly sang in a chorus, and more than two-thirds reporting hearing choral music frequently in their homes through recordings or radio. Almost 69 percent said they had their first choral singing experiences in elementary or middle school. This finding provides further evidence to the growing body of national data indicating that early exposure to and training in the performing arts is a key determinant in arts participation by adults.
- Choral singers are far more likely to be involved in charity work, as volunteers and donors (76 percent), than the average person (44 percent, according to a 2001 report by Independent Sector, the national organization of charities).
- Choral singers are more than twice as likely as non-participants to be aware of current events and involved in the political process. Seventy-one percent of choral participants report reading daily newspapers, contrasted with 32 percent of adults generally; and 20 percent of choral singers say they are actively involved in political causes, nearly triple the number of the general public reporting such involvement.
- Choral singers are twice as likely as the general public to be major consumers of other arts - and not just music. The study finds, for example, that 87 percent of choral singers report visiting a museum in the past year, whereas the most recent national study of arts participation conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1997 estimated general population attendance at museums at 35 percent. The number of singers who regularly attend live theater performances was nearly double that of the general public.
- The research explored the depth of feeling that participants had about their choral experience, with many reporting that the requirements of choral singing - discipline, attention to detail, teamwork, and the social value of the experience - combine to improve their daily lives, in both their work and in family relationships. Many choristers testified to the degree to which their choral singing made them more aware of other people's life experiences, helping them to bridge social gaps. "That connection with people exposes me to ideas...that aren't otherwise available," one respondent said. Another chorister said of fellow singers, "These people, whom I love dearly, are politically or religiously very different from me." Seventy-four percent said they "agreed strongly" that choral participation had helped them develop new friendships.
Clearly, the presence of choral singing in childhood - experienced in person at live performances or through recordings, or done by parents or other family members - is an enormous influence on the choices adults make later in life. As Americans debate the goals and content of public education, research showing the positive influence of the arts continues to grow. The new choral study illustrates that an early introduction to the performing arts is a building block for life-long learning - it helps build social skills, community involvement, and enhances academic skills in general.
Additionally, choral singing provides an extraordinarily accessible entry point for arts exposure, with fewer barriers to participation - economic, cultural, educational - than posed by other art forms.
"An important motivation for this study was to get a clearer idea of the impact choruses have on communities," said Ann Meier Baker, executive director of Chorus America. "Choruses are a big part of enriching community life and culture in cities and towns of all sizes across the country, and choruses routinely provide education programs that reach across all segments of the population."
Chorus members in the study affirmed that performing great music well for enthusiastic audiences remains a key factor in sustaining their involvement, and may help to explain the number-one ranking of choral music for participation by Americans. The study finds that choristers strongly believe that the impact of their singing is an enormous good to society, and that this is a way of "giving back" to their communities.
Chorus America, headquartered in Washington, DC, represents the growing choral community in the U.S. and Canada, and provides data, programs, and networking for professional and volunteers in the choral field. The 28-page report, America's Performing Art: A Study of Choruses, Choral Singers, and Their Impact, is available in its entirety at the Chorus America website, www.chorusamerica.org.
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