Music School Offers Choir for Kids and Mini Camp

New York Music & Arts, a music school in Forest Hills and Great Neck for kids, is now offering a children's choir for kids in Queens, and a mini camp in Great Neck that takes place between the end of traditional summer camp and the beginning of the school year.

New York Music & Arts, a music school with locations in Forest Hills and Great Neck, is kicking off the summer with a new children’s concert choir and rounding it out with an August mini-camp in Great Neck. The school, which only employs teachers with either a Ph.D. or master’s degree from the Julliard School of Music, offers both private lessons and group classes to children as young as 3.

Chen Xin Xu, artistic director at New York Music & Arts, says that “singing for children is incredibly crucial,” as it is the first way they expose themselves to music. Although the school has always offered free choir classes on Saturdays, it is now expanding to put together an official children’s concert choir. In this choir, students will be “frequently performing and… doing a more extensive repertoire,” Xu says. One of the places that students at New York Music & Arts may have the opportunity to perform at is the prestigious Carnegie Hall. “We want to give [our students] the largest stage possible for them to showcase themselves,” Xu says, “and Carnegie Hall is the best you can choose from.”

In addition, New York Music & Arts will begin offering what Xu calls an “innovative mini-camp” in Great Neck for 10 days in August. The camp, which is for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, aims to make the most of the break between the end of traditional summer camps and the start of the school year. “We consider this one of the most crucial [times],” says Xu, “because kids need to calm down. They need to get ready and get into the zone before going back to school.” The camp combines music, art, and science to prepare children for the start of the school year.

Registration is now open, and cost varies.

Main photo: Children in New York Music & Arts’ children’s choir will preform at venues such as Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.