Back in September I spent some time with Kate Emery from the WA News talking about our online program. We discussed many different aspects of the program, focusing on mental health, travelling and how many young people we are reaching and helping.
There is a video interview (somewhere- not released yet!) and this article.
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‘Sue Ross spends her days singing with kids.
But, most of the time, she does it in an otherwise empty room.
The Choirs4Kids founder is passionate about offering young children — some of them too young to sing in school choirs or unable to attend in person — the chance to learn how to sing. For that, her Choirs4Kids company runs mostly online classes, with students aged four to 15 dialling in from around the world.
Mrs Ross, who lives in Bridgetown, said it was an environment “where young people learn to use their voice and become super confident with time”.
“When they first come onto the screen I know not much about them and one of the bonuses is that I don’t need to know anything about them,” she said. “We have all sorts of young people from all sorts of backgrounds with all sorts of needs and it doesn’t make any difference to me what their story is.
When they come for their first session they’re usually very quiet but, by the end, well, yesterday for example I had a new child come to the session. It’s a 45 minute lesson and for the first 40 minutes it was a very serious face, with no connection and I tend to let them manage that themselves. But by the 40th minute she was smiling, engaged, laughing, wanting to tell me about her story.
“The difference in confidence is huge, the difference in their singing voice is a beautiful, beautiful journey.
Mrs Ross was inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame at this year’s What’s On 4 Kids State Awards, where Choirs4Kids also won six awards.
Merylena Sulak said her son, Asten, had seen his confidence increase since joining Choirs4Kids.
“They all get the chance to sing out online if they would like to but, also, for those children who would not like to be heard by the entire choir it’s a nice environment to sing.”’
