HIGHLIGHTS
TOURS
CHRONOLOGICALLY

Hosted by Micah Materre, WGN Anchor/Reporter and Choir Board Member

Josephine Lee is the youngest person ever named Artistic Director of the Chicago Children's Choir and she is one of Chicago's Very Own.

 


Some call her a visionary. Others call her a mentor, a teacher and a friend.

"She brings a vision," Helen Eaton, President Executive Director of the Chicago Children's Choir said, "An incredible vision. Shes one of the most creative intelligent and courageous people I have ever met."

Concert Choir member Jihan Dubose said that she can can go to her for anything. "She's so talented. She's a really good listener, and she has a lot of insight."

At age 22, in 1999, Josephine Lee became the youngest person ever named Artistic Director of the world-renowned Chicago Children's Choir.

Close to 3,000 kids participate in the Choir, and they are made up of a culturally and ethnically diverse group that sings together, learns together and ultimately change their lives together through music.

"Right now there's a crisis in music education," Josephine Lee explained. "Chicago Children's Choir fufills that need. By teaching these children, you're teaching children culture through music."

But Lee isn't just the choir director. At age 3, she was practicing hours at the piano with her father sitting and listening by her side. By age 4 she started playing violin. At age 15 she was conducting her own choir. She's also an arranger and producer.

With such an accomplished resume, Lee could do almost anything in music. But she won't. She has one goal.

"She could be a great symphony conductor," Director of Choral Programs Judy Hanson said. "She could do many things with her great musical ability, and yet what really drives her is the the kids, the singers."

Lee started in the choir's In-SchoolProgram and Neighborhood Choir soon after receiving her masters degree in conducting, working with kids just yearning to sing but hadn't been exposed to music. It was then that she realized her passion.

"That's when I said, 'How are these children not given the opportunities that was given to me?'" Lee explained. "The cultural training, that was a revelation to me."

Lee hasn't looked back, and the kids see her passion everyday in rehersals and performances.

"She really uses us as her vessels and the wisdom and the excellence she impacts is gonna last me a lifetime," choir member Caroline Kagan said.

With Josephine, this Emmy Award-winning Choir has traveled and performed nationally and internationally. With a tour in Argentina, Korea, the Czech Republic and Japan to name a few.

So how does such a young woman instill such wisdom and appreciation for music in the lives of all these children?

"She has lived an incredibly full life," Eaton said. "She has seen a lot of the world, she understands what needs to happen for children."

Josephine said she gets her energy and her patience and wisdom from the kids.

"I wouldn't be fulfilled in the same way without the Choir," Lee explained. "This Choir has taken me through the deaths of my parents. They have taken this journey with me with the births of my children, and they have seen me mature as a human being. It's been a gift and a journey I will continue living posthumously."

Josephine Lee. She is certainly one of Chicago's Very Own.

Click image below to view video.
To experience the Choir in more videos visit us on YouTube.

Download Chicago Children’s Choir newsletters: