About NYC

Why join the Northfield Youth Choirs?
The NYC is a great place to sing–and a great place to grow up. Since 1986, hundreds of young people have found their voices–and lifelong friends–by singing with these extraordinary choirs.

Singers in grades 1 through 12 enjoy weekly rehearsals with nationally renowned directors and music educators, twice yearly retreats, area performances and tours appropriate to their ages and developing voices.

The NYC organization’s philosophy can be summed up by the words of a Czech composer: “Music is not only a gift, but also a service; not only a work, but also a struggle; not only a mission, but also a message.”

The NYC believes that the poet Rabelais had it right too: “A child is a fire to be lit, not a vase to be filled.” Singers benefit for the rest of their lives from the skills and the discipline they acquire in the NYC–and from the fires kindled within them there.

Our History

Founded by Cora Scholz and Judy Bond in 1986, the Northfield Youth Choirs are 23 years old and going strong!

Elizabeth Shepley has led the NYC as Artistic Director since 2005. The organization presently consists of seven choirs and summer programming that serve over 200 children from grades 1-12.

Highlights for the group include performing on A Prairie Home Companion radio show; performing “Come Make a Home,” a piece composed for the choirs by Dan and Christine Kallman, at the Northfield Sesquicentennial Governors Ball and the 2006 Opening Session of the Minnesota House of Representatives; and singing the National Anthem for a Twins game in the fall of ‘06 and ‘07.