Luke McEndarfer

The GRAMMY® Award-winning National Children’s Chorus (NCC), led by Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer and Associate Artistic Director Dr. Pamela Blackstone, is one of the world’s leading children’s choirs, serving over 1,100 youth in eight chapter cities: Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Boston, and Chicago. Providing unparalleled training and performance experiences to young singers around the country, the NCC’s extraordinary team of artistic and administrative professionals are also passionately committed to equitable access to its offerings through a robust scholarship program that funds participation for all qualifying families. Performing locally and abroad, the National Children’s Chorus regularly sings at celebrated music halls, working with some of the finest conductors, composers and orchestras. Venues include Royce Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; as well as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, sharing the stage with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and American Youth Symphony, among others. Students of the NCC are represented by more than three hundred schools throughout its cities and meet weekly for rehearsal and musicianship study. The extensive curriculum includes college-level conducting, composition, music theory, sight-singing in the Kodály Method, Dalcroze eurhythmics, and individual voice training in the bel canto style. Through a holistic approach to cultivating the unique potential within each child, graduates from the program are accepted at top conservatories, colleges and universities. Each summer, Senior Division ensembles of the NCC travel internationally, expanding the students’ cultural awareness and worldly experience. The NCC also hosts an annual summer opera camp, commissioning new works, and designed to engage youth in the art of opera.