Since 2003, the Garfield Park/Off The Street Club Neighborhood Choir has served youth from East and West Garfield Park. Singers in the Garfield Park/Off The Street Club Neighborhood Choir must become a member of Off The Street Club to join the ensemble. Off The Street Club is Chicago’s oldest boys and girls club, providing more than 3000 youth in Garfield Park with a safe place for games, play, and mentorship.
Our Neighborhood Choir programs are a window onto the world and an incubator for global leadership. With our world-class instruction and empathetic approach to music education, these community-based programs bring to life an emphasis on emotional, intellectual, and social development anchored in musical excellence and creative expression.
In the Garfield Park/Off The Street Club Neighborhood Choir, music education means more than theory, notation, and sight-singing. Through exposure to music that authentically incorporates diverse languages and styles, singers engage in dialogue about the historical and social context of an array of cultures. The impact of this exposure is compounded by the opportunity for students to connect with young people across the city—and globe—breaking down barriers of race, religion, and socioeconomics, forging life-long friendships along the way.
The Garfield Park/Off The Street Club Neighborhood Choir has been invited to sing for community functions in Garfield Park and beyond. In 2019, the Garfield Park/Off the Street Club Neighborhood Choir performed on a tour for a number of downtown-Chicago audiences at Paint the Town Red in 2019. Recent national tours include performances in New Jersey and New York.
