Nurturing Young Voices:
CANTUS VOCAL ENSEMBLE’S HIGH SCHOOL MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Cantus is thrilled to continue its educational endeavors in the Twin Cities with the conclusion of the second annual High School Mentorship Program (HSM). This innovative program offers a free, year-long intensive collaboration with a Twin Cities area high school choral program, focusing on improving students’ musical skills, while modeling empathy, vulnerability, and personal authenticity in music-making.
This past academic year, Cantus partnered with Minneapolis Southwest High School, under the direction of Bryan Fisher, working with two choirs: Southwest Singers (grades 11-12) and Coro Voce (grade 10). We were excited to visit the singers on a monthly basis, introducing the students to Cantus’ narrative programming model and collaborative structure, in addition to giving performances to the students and their families.
Paul Rudoi talks about programming a show.
Bryan Fisher eloquently captured the musical impact on the students: “To be able to see live music, ensemble music done at that level to me is just priceless to get to experience that. To hear music at that caliber, as close as 10 feet away is really not common.”
Our workshops go beyond technical training, encouraging students to connect emotionally with the music they perform. One student reflected on this approach: “I thought it was really cool being able to learn a lot more about music, from both the technical side of singing as well as digging in emotionally to the text.”
Incorporating principles of Social Emotional Learning (SEL), we guided students through programming their own choral concerts this spring, where we performed alongside each choir. The students derived their concert themes themselves and settled on them through a democratic voting process, and wrote their own speaking moments to bridge thematically between songs. The results were profound, with students embracing vulnerability and making deep connections between their lived experiences and the music.
Cantus and Coro Voce (grade 10)
Cantus and Southwest Singers (grades 11-12)
One student’s powerful spoken moment during the concert illustrates the depth of this process:
“For most of elementary school, I struggled academically. I just couldn’t focus. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, or I wasn’t working hard. I really did care, my teachers just didn’t see all that. They didn’t see the hours I would spend at the dinner table trying to figure out the math homework with my dad. All they would see is the energetic girl that was bouncing around the room and would not stop talking (some of that is still true). Then, later in fourth grade, I was diagnosed with ADHD. This was a huge shift in my life because, with medication and help, I could finally focus. The path at the start was really rocky and stressful, but I believe that now I am even stronger and more resilient academically.… This idea of overcoming obstacles and moving forward is something that I think everyone can relate to.”
These moments of genuine self-expression and critical thinking are at the heart of our mission. We’re not just training singers; we’re nurturing whole individuals who can use music as a powerful tool for self-discovery and communication.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to partner with Johnson Senior High School in Saint Paul for the 2025-26 school year, working with teacher Melanie Lunda and approximately 60 students. Melanie shared her enthusiasm:
“The Johnson High School choir students and I are so excited to be partnering with Cantus next year! I know that this opportunity will be both inspirational and engaging for my students. We are so excited to welcome these amazing musicians into our choral community and build a beautiful partnership!”
The High School Mentorship Program is proving to be an inspiring way to bridge between musical generations. It has been a joy for us to get to know students on a more individual level, which in turn allows the students to be more receptive to our feedback and mentorship. We are thankful for our dear partners, the Carlson Family Foundation, the Twin Cities Opera Guild, and The Minnesota State Arts Board as well as our individual donors and supporters whose contributions make this vital work possible, notably Barry Berg and Walter Tambor. It is through your support that we can play a part in helping to shape confident, empathetic, and artistically vibrant young adults who will become the next generation of choral musicians.