The Chorus Impact
Choral singing continues to be the most popular form of participation in the performing arts.
- Chorus participation remains strong in America. Overall, 18.1% of households report one or more adults currently participate in a chorus, an even higher rate of participation than found in Chorus America’s 2003 research. When children are added to the equation, participation jumps to 22.9% of households.
- When the total number of choral singers per household are tallied, there are an estimated 32.5 million adults regularly singing in choruses today and 42.6 million Americans overall (including children), both numbers up substantially from 2003, although some of this increase could be due to changes in methodology (see Research Notes).
- There are nearly 270,000 choruses nationwide. This total includes about 12,000 professional and community choruses (which includes the independent choruses that comprise a majority of Chorus America’s membership), at least 41,000 K-12 school choruses, and 216,000 religious choirs. These estimates are believed to be conservative, based on the methodology used to calculate these figures.
Adults who sing in choruses are remarkably good citizens.
- Chorus members are avid patrons of the arts, attending theater, opera, choral events, orchestra concerts, museums, and art galleries significantly more frequently than members of the general public.
- Chorus members also volunteer significantly more frequently than the general public. They’re significantly more likely to say they volunteer frequently, fairly often, and/or at least sometimes, significantly less likely to say they almost never do so. They’re also significantly more likely to regularly attend a church, mosque, or synagogue than general public members.
- Chorus members are substantial financial contributors to their choruses, and are contributing significantly more dollars now than in 2003. As was the case in the earlier research, choral singers also contribute much more financially to philanthropic organizations than the average American, and do so at rates that appear even slightly higher than before.
- More generally, chorus members exhibit greater civic leadership than their fellow Americans—they are significantly more likely to report voting regularly, reading books and newspapers regularly, contributing money to political parties or candidates, serving as officers of civic organizations, and working for political parties. And by most of these measures, chorus members have become significantly more civically engaged than they were in 2003.
- Chorus participation appears to make members better team players in other activities in their lives (outside chorus). Choristers are significantly more likely than others to self-report being reliable, willing to accept criticism, regularly accept assignments outside their area of expertise, and significantly less likely to say they don’t get enough credit for what they do or get viewed by others as resources instead of allies. A large majority of choral singers credit chorus experience as key to their team participation or team leadership abilities and with helping them to socialize better in other areas of their lives.
Children who sing in choruses have academic success and valuable life skills.
- Children who sing in choruses get significantly better grades in school than kids who have never been part of a choir, according to their parents, and substantial majorities of parents with children in choirs say their child’s ability or performance in English/language arts, mathematics, and academics overall improved after their child joined a choir.
- Parents whose children sing in choirs are significantly more likely to report that their child has many other qualities conducive to learning and development than parents of children who don’t sing, including, among others, good memory, good practice and homework habits, and high levels of creativity. Sizable majorities of member’s parents credit joining a choir for achievement in these areas and more.
- Parents of children in choirs are significantly and consistently more likely to report that their children are better team players and have more advanced social skills than parents of children who’ve never participated. An overwhelming majority of these parents date improvements in these areas to when their child joined a choir, and also say their child’s ability to manage his/her emotions and/or read the emotions of others improved after they became choral singers.
- Educators—drawn widely across disciplines in our sample—are even more emphatic about the positive role that choirs play in childhood education and development. Large majorities of educators, often 80 percent or more, agree that choir participation can help make students better participants in groups, help develop stronger social skills, lead to better emotional expression and management, improve overall academic performance, help instill self-discipline and punctuality, and more.