Welcome to the St. Luke's Choir School
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For generations, our acclaimed children’s choirs have enriched young lives and instilled a lifelong love of music. The St. Luke's Choir School offers accessible and rigorous music education and performance opportunities to children ages five through eighteen from all backgrounds and faith traditions.
Do you know a child who loves to sing? Then discover the St. Luke's Choir School! Join us for a rehearsal or contact our Director of Music, Andrew Lewis, for more information.
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The St. Luke's Choir School is:
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Excellent
Utilizing the renowned Royal School of Church Music curriculum, our talented staff instructs children in music theory, history, proper vocal technique, and performance skills. Choristers experience the English cathedral model of choral singing as they join the adults in mature, challenging, and rewarding music-making.
Foundational
The St. Luke's Choir School is a supportive community of peers all committed to the same goal. Choristers emerge from the program well prepared for future formal study in music, if desired, but equally ready to pursue successful futures in any other areas because of the skills and characteristics they cultivate in the Choir School. Our choristers emerge from the Choir School with not only a lifelong appreciation of music, but also the capacity for leadership, commitment, focus, attention to detail, patience, and teamwork.
Open to All
Grounded in the belief that music can tear down cultural barriers and build perspective, tolerance, and respect, we welcome talented young singers from all over the area. The choir includes children of all faiths and reflects the socioeconomic, geographic, and religious diversity of the Chicago area. Our program is entirely tuition-free!
Rich with Opportunity
Our choristers sing great works of art and receive amazing opportunities! Every three to four years, conditions permitting, the Choir travels to England to perform and experience firsthand the roots of the Anglican choral tradition. Our choristers also enjoy retreats at Wisconsin's Camp Anokijig. In recent years, our choristers have performed with the University of Chicago, Loyola University, and the professional ensemble Bella Voce.
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This year, the Choir School has announced a partnership with the Musical Offering of Evanston, offering choristers generous scholarships for private lessons and classes on an instrument of their choice.
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Our Choirs
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The Trebles
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St. Luke’s youth choir, known as the Trebles, offers an unparalleled opportunity to provide young singers with a free, world-class musical education. As participants, choristers experience the English cathedral model of choral singing as they join the adults in mature, challenging, and rewarding music-making. Our choristers receive musical training in vocal production, sight-reading, music theory, and aural skills in the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) training schema.
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The Trebles are a supportive community of peers all committed to the same goal. They sing great works of art and receive opportunities for tours, retreats, and concerts. The skills that these choristers develop last a lifetime and foster growth in other areas of life at a young age: leadership, commitment, focus, attention to detail, patience, teamwork, camaraderie, and a love for service.
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Membership in the treble section of the St. Luke’s Choir is open to children in third grade and up. Young people whose voices remain soprano remain trebles through high school. Young people whose voices change register may move into the alto, tenor, or bass section once their voices change.
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The Trebles rehearse on Mondays at 6:00 – 7:30 pm, Thursdays at 6:30 – 8:00 pm, and each Sunday morning at 8:45 am.
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The St. Cecilia Singers
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We are thrilled to announce the St. Cecilia Singers, a reimagined version of the Training Choir. The St. Cecilia Singers is a family choir, inviting people of all ages and abilities to participate. This joyful choir will sing at St. Luke's liturgies periodically throughout the year. We welcome anyone, any family, any child who wants to sing. This includes parents, older siblings who don't want to sing in the Trebles, grandparents, & other members of the St. Luke's community.
Parents may still simply opt to drop off their kids as has been the practice with the Training Choir. There is no obligation for parents to stay and sing! Each rehearsal will include some music theory and plenty of singing. Come as often as your schedule permits to join in the fun and sing along.
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The St. Cecilia Singers rehearse on Thursdays from 6:00 – 6:30 pm during the school year.
Our Staff
Andrew Lewis, Director of Music
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Profiled by John von Rhein in the Chicago Tribune as “the inspiring conductor, scholar, and educator,” Andrew Lewis is Director of Music & Choirmaster at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Evanston, Artistic Director of Bella Voce and the Bella Voce Sinfonia, Music Director of the Elgin Master Chorale, Artistic Director of Opus 327 NFP, a member of the conducting faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. He has been a guest lecturer at Concordia University Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, the Lectures in Church Music series, Garrett Theological Seminary, and formerly taught the conducting course at DePaul University. He has been a guest conductor with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus and has appeared on several occasions as a guest conductor with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Lewis’s performances with Bella Voce, the Elgin Master Chorale, and the Elgin Symphony have been broadcast nationally on WFMT 98.7. He has music degrees from Northwestern University and the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Lewis has three sons who are growing up in the music program at St. Luke’s and, like the other parents, is daily in awe of and grateful for the tremendously positive impact this rigorous program and nurturing community has had on his children.
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