Spivey Hall Children’s Choir Celebrates Its Silver Anniversary

The Spivey Hall Children’s Choir Program is celebrating its silver anniversary this year. Each year, 170 students between the ages of 10 and 18 participate in various Spivey Hall Children’s Choir programs. Their performance venues range from local nursing homes to The Vatican.

The program was founded by Dr. Martha Shaw who has conducted thousands of Atlanta youths for the past 25 years. In conversation with Lois Reitzes, Dr. Shaw speaks about the power of the human voice as a direct expression of the soul. Dr. Shaw also illustrates the ways in which songs from the choir’s repertoire can help people through all kinds of situations, from courtship with “The Way You Look Tonight” to the end of life with the spiritual, “No Time.”

“It comes from the center of your body and it has to be mixed with your soul if it’s going to communicate. That’s what makes teaching voice such a difficult thing to do because the students take it so personally because its them. It’s their instrument, it’s their body, but its also what makes it so magical,” said Dr. Shaw about the intricacies of teaching students for so many years.