IMPORTANT!!! Our three homeschool choirs are merging for the 2023/2024 season into the Sing Montana! Youth Choir (ages 7-18). The page below is outdated until the 2024/25 season. Please go immediately to the Youth Choir page, and do not read the page below (unless you’re just looking for something to do right now!)
BRAIN ALERT!!! Having an excellent program requires that lots of information change hands. We’ve got the entire 2023/2024 season planned out to the day already. So this page is packed, and is best read when you can set aside some quiet minutes for it. We need all of this information to transfer over—which will save all parties considerable time in the long run. What we’re trying to build here is worth taking a few careful minutes to read!
The Spirit of the Sing Montana! Choirs
These are special ensembles that are fun, well-organized, and challenging all at once. We’re in it for the love of the people, the love of music, and the love of excellence in general. Most parents, of course, will be pleased with almost any musical performance their kids do, but our aim goes the extra mile: to put on performances (even with Kid’s Choir) that a general audience will find highly energetic and entertaining. So this goes far beyond just being a casual singalong club or a music class. Individual singers are expected to learn the notes and words accurately, as well as to match details, such as the vowel sounds we sing and the timing of the song. So naturally, we always hope for singers who are the sort to have lots of fun while working hard—and that seems to be mostly what we get! But we also do lots and lots of training. We don’t just hope for kids who are already good at it; we do our best to train the ones we’ve got!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please understand that is is a two-semester commitment of 30 weeks (13 Fall and 17 Spring). These are are not “classes”; they are performing ensembles—quite like a sports team in some ways—where absences of individuals are very disruptive to the progress of the whole team. If you can’t attend regularly, please wait to join until another school year when you can!
OUR HOMESCHOOL CHOIRS
Sing Montana! Kids’ Choir
A year-long ensemble for boys and girls, ages 7-9. No pitch-matching test required.
Rehearses once a week for 60 minutes. Sings unison songs and rounds, mostly. Please read the rest of this page for other crucial information.
Sing Montana! Treble Choir
under the name of Homeschool Glee Club.
A year-long ensemble for boys and girls, ages 10-12. This is for singers who are singing in the soprano or alto ranges. If you have a male singer in this age range who is already singing in the tenor or bass ranges, please contact us and we’ll see whether it would be a good move to put them in Teen Choir early. Pitch-matching test required. Rehearses once a week for 75 minutes. Sings mostly 2- and 3-part songs. Please read the rest of this page for other crucial information.
Sing Montana! Teen Choir
Boys and girls, ages 13-18. Pitch-matching test required.
Rehearses once a week for 105 minutes. Sings mostly 3- and 4-part songs.
Please read the rest of this page for other crucial information.
DATES FOR 2023/2024 SEASON—
ALL 3 CHOIRS
REHEARSAL DAY/TIME—Year-Round
| CHOIR | DAY | TIME |
| Kids’ Choir | Wednesdays | 9:30am to 10:30am |
| Treble Choir | Wednesdays | 11:00am to 12:15pm |
| Teen Choir | Wednesdays | 1:00pm to 2:25pm |
FALL REHEARSAL/PERFORMANCE DATES
| EVENT | DATE | |
| 1 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, September 13, 2023 |
| 2 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, September 20, 2023 |
| 3 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, September 27, 2023 |
| 4 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, October 4, 2023 |
| 5 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, October 11, 2023 |
| 6 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, October 18, 2023 |
| 7 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, October 25, 2023 |
| 8 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, November 1, 2023 |
| 9 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, November 8, 2023 |
| 10 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, November 15, 2023 |
| 11 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, November 22, 2023 |
| 12 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, November 29, 2023 |
| 13 | Dress Rehearsal | Monday, December 4, 2023. 5:30pm-8:30pm—Montana Christmas! |
| 14 | Performance | Friday, December 8, 2023. 5:30pm-8:30pm—Montana Christmas! |
| 15 | Performance | Saturday, December 9, 2023. 5:30pm-8:30pm—Montana Christmas! |
SPRING REHEARSAL/PERFORMANCE DATES
| EVENT | DATE | |
| 1 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, January 10, 2024 |
| 2 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, January 17, 2024 |
| 3 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, January 24, 2024 |
| 4 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, January 31, 2024 |
| 5 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, February 7, 2024 |
| 6 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, February 14, 2024 |
| 7 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, February 21, 2024 |
| 8 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, February 28, 2024 |
| 9 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, March 6, 2024 |
| 10 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, March 13, 2024 |
| 11 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, March 20, 2024 |
| 12 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, March 27, 2024 |
| 13 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, April 3, 2024 |
| 14 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, April 10, 2024 |
| 15 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, April 17, 2024 |
| 16 | Rehearsal | Wednesday, April 24, 2024 |
| 17 | Dress Rehearsal | Monday, April 29, 2024. 5:30pm-8:30pm–Sing Montana! |
| 18 | Performance | Friday, May 3, 2024. 5:30pm-8:30pm–Sing Montana! |
| 19 | Performance | Saturday, May 4, 2024. 5:30pm-8:30pm–Sing Montana! |
LOCATIONS
To be announced soon. Rehearsals will be in Billings somewhere fairly central and convenient.
GENERAL INFORMATION—ALL 3 CHOIRS
TUITION FOR THE YEAR
$200 for the year. (Spans 30 weeks, and includes 29 rehearsals, 4 concerts, and 2 T-shirts)
May be paid all in advance, or at a rate of $100 per semester, due on the first rehearsal of each semester. Cash, check, or debit.
THIS IS A 2-SEMESTER COMMITMENT—30 Weeks
You’re signing up for a 30-week membership Fall/Spring ensemble. The fall concert, Montana Christmas! is a big annual Christmas show, but we’ll start in the Fall learning music for the Spring show, too.
CODE OF CONDUCT
To keep what we’re doing special and enjoyable, we work hard to be sure everybody is on the same page when it comes to the behaviors that are expected. Please study the following Code of Conduct. This must be signed by parents and singers alike.
PITCH-MATCHING TESTS
This is not required for Kid’s Choir, but is required for the two older choirs. The idea is to make sure that those singers have acquired this crucial skill so that the end product will be an audience-pleasing performance. The test is very short and simple, and can be done over the phone with the director, Jack Pelham. The director will hum some random pitch (or play it on a piano), and the singer will match the pitch as accurately as possible. This test normally goes no longer than 60 seconds. If the singer isn’t matching pitches accurately, the director will suggest that they go get those skills (in private lessons?) and then come back to try again—if not for this year, then for next year!
SPECIAL NEEDS POLICY
We’re so torn on the question of who we can accommodate and who we can’t. If your singer seems to have any special needs, please do take a few minutes to read our Special Needs Policy here.
REGISTRATION
The first step is to pass the pitch-matching tests (except for Kids’ Choir). Once you’ve passed, then we’ll send you a link to a private registration page.
CONCERT ATTIRE
We will have a strict dress code for our concerts, although the details are yet to be determined. We’ll publish that as soon as we can. At the most, it will call for all black attire (tops, bottoms, and shoes), though we are considering having one or more of the homeschool choirs wear their Montana Christmas! T-shirts with black bottoms and shoes in the show.
T-SHIRTS
Two t-shirts are included in the annual tuition. Singers will get a brand new Montana Christmas! T-shirt on the first day of Fall rehearsals, and on the first day of rehearsals after the Christmas break, they’ll get a short-sleeve T-shirt with the specific ensemble name on the front. (Not yet designed.) Not only are the shirts fun to wear—and not only would they make for an easy top-half of a uniform (if we choose to go that direction), but we hope that the regular wearing of the shirts will help us to build our ensembles and our audiences alike.
SEEKING AN ACCOMPANIST
All three ensembles will sing from time to time with piano accompaniment, and we are hoping to find one or more accompanists who are a great match for our organization. As we grow, it may be possible for us to pay an accompanist (and director) for professional services, but for now, our start-up status requires that both positions remain unpaid, except for a possible fuel stipend of $20 per rehearsal/performance. The accompanist would also assist as needed with the administrative tasks of the rehearsals. If you know of someone you think would be a great fit, please let us know!
WHAT IF WE DON’T GET ENOUGH SINGERS?
If we don’t get enough singers to pay the bills, we’ll just have to try again in the future. You can help tremendously with this by signing up soon, and by helping us spread the word!
HOW TO SIGN UP
Contact us with questions here! Or if you’re ready to register, carefully choose the correct registration form link from this page.