Tomorrow’s Voices, a non-profit, barrier-free children’s choir led by executive director and founder Todd Green of St. Davids, was recognized last week by Chair Jim Bradley with a 2023 Niagara Impact Award.
Green and board chair Carly Snider accepted the award at the State of the Region event held at the Niagara Falls Convention Centre. They were chosen as the winner in the non-profit category, one of six categories in which a total of 140 nominations were put forth.
Tomorrow’s Voices was selected as this year's recipient for their dedication and commitment to creating a space for children to explore music, build relationships, and raise their voices together in song.
“I was surprised,” said Green, a university professor who teaches at Brock’s Goodman School of Business. “We only launched in 2017. The nominations came from the parents of the kids in the choir. I think that what they said about us really stood out to the committee who chose the winners.”
In an email shared with The Niagara-on-the-Lake Local, one of those parents, Kay Waboso, described Tomorrow’s Voices as “a warm and open space where equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility is centred. Such a safe, nurturing and engaging space for children and youth.”
Tomorrow’s Voices began as an offshoot of sorts from Green’s research work at Brock. While working on his paper “An Exploration of Socially Responsible Music Consumption,” he met vocalist, songwriter and bass player Murray Foster of Great Big Sea. Foster suggested an idea to offer music training as a team-building activity for corporate entities.
Out of that came Choir Nation, through which Green, Foster, and Momentum Choir director Mendelt Hoekstra brought choir sessions to organizations such as KPMG, Chubb, Indigo and Canada Goose.
Green soon realized that the benefits that adults were getting from singing together would easily translate to children, and Tomorrow’s Voices was born.
More than just giving children a chance to sing, though, Green wanted to bring opportunities to those who might not have access to extra-curricular music activities.
“I contacted Community Care St. Catharines and Thorold, and we connected with Big Brothers Big Sisters, too,” he explained. “Caseworkers started referring kids to us, and Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School agreed to host our rehearsals for free. At first we had four kids signed up, and within a week we had 28.”
That commitment to offering opportunities to less advantaged children continues today. Some of the kids currently involved in Tomorrow’s Voices are in foster care, and others have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum.
Since that 2017 beginning in St. Catharines Green has brought the Tomorrow’s Voices concept to Hamilton, Toronto, and just two years ago, Saskatoon. The organization became a registered charity in 2018.
Over the five years that the choir has operated Green estimates that at least 150 kids aged seven to 18 years old have benefited from Tomorrow’s Voices activities. Besides their weekly gatherings for rehearsals, they’ve also had the opportunity to perform on stage, backing up big names in Canadian music, including Serena Ryder, Chantal Kreviazuk, Dan Mangan, Royal Wood and Scott Helman.
After the awards ceremony, Green took the award to the choir’s weekly rehearsal.
“The kids were so excited about it,” he says. “Every single kid wanted a picture with the award, and with me. We had a bunch of group photos, too. Their excitement made winning the award even better. It made me feel like we’re really doing a great thing with this.”
Before Tomorrow’s Voices takes a break for the summer they will be rehearsing for a May 13 concert backing the Niagara Youth Orchestra, with some of the ticket proceeds from that event going to the choir. In the past, some of the funds raised have been put toward post-secondary awards and bursaries to the choir’s graduating kids.
And for the fall season the choirs from all four cities are collaborating on a group project.
“The kids are learning We’re Going to Be Friends by the White Stripes,” says Green. “All four cities are learning it, and they will film it. Then we’ll piece together a video of all of them performing. There are some other works in progress, too.”
And they’re sure to be seen singing the national anthem at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines at the start of a few of the Niagara Ice Dogs games when their new season gets underway.
Green sees the Niagara Impact Award as a testament to the hard work and dedication of the organization’s board of directors, music directors, volunteers, and supporters.
“It certainly inspires us to continue our work and make an even greater impact for kids in Niagara, across the province, and nationally."
