One Voice Children's Choir

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One Voice Children’s Choir is a nonprofit organization that provides children with the opportunity to cultivate their interest and appreciation for music, deliver a positive message through music, and share their talents. The group was founded and is directed by Masa Fukuda, a songwriter and arranger. It was founded in Utah in 2001 as the 2002 Winter Olympic Children’s Choir with the intent to participate in a CD created for sale at the Olympics. Fukuda’s song, “Light Up the Land,” featured 1,621 students from 69 elementary schools and won two Pearl Awards. Twenty-five students wanted to continue working with him. The choir currently has 140 members ages 4 through 18 and they meet each week to practice. They perform up to 70 times per year, including charity events. Members of the choir come from Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming; many are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is a waiting list to join the auditioned choir; in January 2015, for example, the number waiting was 250 children.

The choir became known nationally in 2014 through Alex Boye’s creation of the video “Let It Go” featuring Boyé and Lexi Walker, who has been a member of the choir. The video has close to 100 million views.

In 2003, One Voice sang the Christmas song "Innocence of Youth" and won the John Lennon International Music Award after singing in a competition for Yoko Ono. In the ninth season of television’s America’s Got Talent (2014), the choir reached the semifinals. The choir has also been selected as Utah Best of State winner each year since 2014. One Voice has collaborated with David Archuleta, Jenny Oaks Baker, Sam Cardon, The Piano Guys, Janice Kapp Perry, and Vocal Point, to name a few. They have made several CDs and have over 800,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel. Their “A Million Dreams” video (from The Greatest Showman soundtrack) has over 6 million views. They teamed up with United Way of Northern Utah to help benefit children in poverty.

External Links

Wikipedia article YouTube channel One Voice official website]