About the Chorus
April 7: The Spring choral festival at Christ Lutheran Church, Allentown.
Participating choirs included The Bel Canto Children’s Chorus, Ste. Anne’s School, St. John’s Lutheran and Sellersville, Dingman-Delaware, Hopewell and North Wales Elementary school choirs.
Upcoming Bel Canto Events:
Apr. 26 7:30 pm - Rutter’s Mass of the Children with the Choristers of Upper Dublin
May 4 4 pm - Bel Canto Spring Concert (location to be announced)
The Bel Canto Children’s Chorus was founded in 1993 on the belief that there is musical artistry within every child. Discovering and developing this musical artistry is their goal. Comprised of auditioned treble singers from five counties in southeastern Pennsylvania, the singers have developed an international reputation for performing diversified choral repertoire at the highest standard of musical excellence and style. Bel Canto singers have had the privilege to sing under noted children’s choir directors Jean Ashworth-Bartles, Doreen Rao, and Henry Leck to great acclaim. The choir has been invited to perform for numerous music conferences, including the Eastern Division MENC, PMEA, AGO and Pennsylvania ACDA conferences. Most recently, the choir performed for the 2006 Eastern Division ACDA conference in New York City. 
The choir has been featured by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, has sung in Carnegie Hall, New York City and performs extensively in the Delaware Valley Region. It was also a featured ensemble performing for Liberty In Motion, the celebration surrounding the moving of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia in October 2003. Tours have taken the choir to England, Oregon, Brooklyn, Canada, Disneyworld, and Ohio.
The 2005 tour took the choir for a second time to the Pacific Rim Children’s Choral Festival in Hawaii under the direction of Henry Leck. (The choir attended the inaugural festival in 2001.)
In alternating years, the choir hosts a guest artist/composer. Nick Page was the inaugural composer in 2002 with his piece “There Something Sings.” The 2004-05 guest artist was master hammer dulcimer player / composer Malcolm Dalglish, who was in residency in February 2005. Mr. Dalglish composed the piece “Woods” for Bel Canto in addition to performing “Hymnody of Earth” with the choir.
This season Stephen Hatfield visited the choir and presented workshops to several other area children’s choirs in a “mini” festival in October 2006.
In April 2004, the choir launched its first biannual Choral Festival that took place in Allentown, PA. This biennial festival returns in April 2008.
The 2005 tour took the choir for a second time to the Pacific Rim Children’s Choral Festival in Hawaii under the direction of Henry Leck. (The choir attended the inaugural festival in 2001.) 
In alternating years, the choir hosts a guest artist/composer. Nick Page was the inaugural composer in 2002 with his piece “There Something Sings.” The 2004-05 guest artist was master hammer dulcimer player / composer Malcolm Dalglish, who was in residency in February 2005. Mr. Dalglish composed the piece “Woods” for Bel Canto in addition to performing “Hymnody of Earth” with the choir. 
