Luke McEndarfer is a GRAMMY Award-winning American conductor and one of the most compelling visionaries in the classical music world today. His dynamic career spanning over two decades has been shaped by an unwavering commitment to ambitious innovation, artistic creativity, and musical excellence. Currently, he serves as Artistic Director, President and CEO of the National Children’s Chorus, one of the fastest-growing and most successful youth arts organizations in the United States.
What motivated you to launch the NCC and what has your growth been like?
As someone who grew up singing and learning to play the piano since six years old, music was always a big part of my life. After getting my masters degree in artistic conducting from the UCLA School of Music, I held various positions as a conductor for churches and schools, including two top-level children’s choirs in Los Angeles, and a high school orchestra in Hollywood. I also traveled around the country and the world extensively, where I explored other programs and learned more about various choral institutions. After a few years seeing and experiencing what our industry had to offer, I must admit that I wasn’t satisfied. I knew that so much more could be done, and on a much higher level, particularly when working with children. This coincided with the sad reality that a real music education within the school system seemed to be getting deprioritized and, in many schools, cut from the curriculum entirely. I thought it was strange and unfortunate that somewhere along the line, it was decided that music was not that important, compared with the other subjects.
One night in 2008 while in New York, I decided to walk in circles around the block of my friend’s apartment in Chelsea over and over. I did it for hours. I’m sure it must have seemed strange to anyone who noticed, but I was deep in thought, visualizing so many ideas of what could be created to fill this musical gap in our education system; how it would be created; what it would be called; and how it would operate. When I finally had enough of a grasp in my head, I went up to the apartment and called another friend to tell her what I had come up with. When she picked up, I said, “National Children’s Chorus.” It has has now been roughly fifteen years since.
When I was circling that block in New York, I was mainly figuring out the “what’s” and the “how’s,” because I already knew clearly the “why.” With the National Children’s Chorus, I wanted more than anything to build a place for young musicians across the country to express themselves, engage with world-class collaborators, and be immersed in extraordinary artistry. The result would be experiences for them that were meaningful, connected, and life-changing. Whether a graduate from our program went to music school or pursued an alternate career, their confidence, sense of self, respect for others, and commitment to excellence would be supercharged and elevated through the training and development within our program. Essentially, the National Children’s Chorus would be a force of good in the world–an institution where, through music, participants are encouraged to become truer versions of themselves with enhanced awareness of our shared human values.
To achieve my vision, the organization would have to operate on a level never before attempted in our industry. We would need a large infrastructure that could effectively train thousands of young voices consistently and coordinate logistics from across the nation, ultimately allowing students to take the stage at iconic venues and share their music together as one. Thus, the National Children’s Chorus was born, and while its humble beginnings can count only a few members, we now educate more than 1,000 children in seven chapter cities.
You have 35 choirs now in cities across the US. What do you attribute such great success to?
I would say that the success of the NCC is pretty simple. I feel our organization works very hard to understand the needs of our parents and students and then we endeavor each day to meet those needs. This approach is very strong and consistent within the culture and mindset of our amazing team of more than 100 employees. Accordingly, it can be felt and experienced by our members, and unsurprisingly, it resonates greatly with them. Even though the NCC has many avenues for promoting student recruitment, the largest source of our membership growth by far is word of mouth. I think this speaks highly to the level of the student experience, as well as that of the parent.
You recently launched the Vail Opera Camp in Colorado. Why Vail and how did that newest expansion go?
Once it was clear that we wanted to support the art form of opera and engage our talented students in live operatic productions, we knew it had to be an immersive summer experience. We also knew that most of our students live in metropolitan areas, so we wanted this to be outdoors and in a setting of great natural beauty. When I was doing research on various venues, I found the Ford Amphitheatre in Vail to be truly stunning and perfect for our future productions. Additionally, there were other outdoor performance venues in and around Vail that we could utilize in the initial years of building the program. When I then stumbled upon “Vail Epic Discovery,” a dedicated program of outdoor activities for youth already built into the Vail summer community, the team was sold.
We have now been in Vail for two summers, having sung and produced two separate operas–Brundibár by Hans Krasa in 2021 and The Odyssey by Ben Moore in 2022. We now look forward to our 3rd Vail Opera Camp to be held in August of 2023 when we will perform The Tinker of Tivoli, with music by Rossini. Leading the program is our newly appointed opera director Johnathan McCullough–an NCC alumnus who has excelled as an internationally acclaimed baritone and whose passion for opera earned him a GRAMMY nomination in 2021 for Soldier Songs. While the Vail Opera Camp is rather new within our organization, we expect it to grow to feature roughly eighty vocalists on stage this coming summer.
You also just hosted an event in DC supporting Ukraine, something that is an ongoing initiative, can you share ?
The NCC held a gala at the Embassy of Sweden this past October in Washington, D.C., with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the NCC’s scholarship fund. The Swedish Ambassador to the United States, her excellency Ms. Karin Olofsdotter, officiated the event and spoke about the importance of music in uniting the world, especially at this critical point in history where Ukraine has been attacked and Europe destabilized to the point where Sweden has now decided to join NATO. She tied that in with the importance of music and music education.
Earlier in the year, the NCC sang at Lincoln Center and gave tribute to the people of Ukraine by collaborating with a children’s chorus singing digitally on the streets of Lviv, where part of the performance was digital and part live. We sang Eric Whitacre’s Sing Gently together with them in spirit and their voices rang out in harmony with our young performers live. It was very moving for everyone in attendance. Currently, we are working with the Ukrainian Institute of America on a new campaign that would use footage from that performance at Lincoln Center to continue promoting awareness regarding the war and help ensure support for Ukraine remains high locally and globally.
The latest album just Brundibár, released September 30th on Spotify and Apple Music, and was just submitted for Grammy consideration (and you are a former Grammy winner.) What makes this album so special?
Brundibár is an amazing opera for so many reasons, and has been championed by many opera houses over the years, including the Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera Company. This album released by the NCC is particularly special because the vocals were not recorded in a studio, but rather on iPhones in bedrooms and closets around the country during quarantine. It’s hard to believe, because it sounds so synchronous and spectacular, but each performer recorded that opera alone.
To me, it powerfully displays the resilience of our students, the commitment they have toward their art, and their determination to create something so beautiful and meaningful during challenging times. In addition to a comprehensive WWII study, the singers on this album learned the symbolism of each role in the opera and the real-life history surrounding this work as well, including the tragic fate of the composer, cast and orchestra who all were taken to the gas chambers at Auschwitz shortly after performing the work in the Czech concentration camp of Theresienstadt.
The NCC singers on this album knew that by creating this recording, we were keeping alive the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and advocating for the overall concept of justice over tyranny. As the opera’s moral is just that–”when united, we will defeat tyranny and justice will prevail,” the NCC students gave heartfelt tribute to Ukraine upon the album’s release.
What’s next for you and NCC?
Any holiday or early new year performances we should be excited about?
Yes, lots to look forward to! After holiday performances in each chapter city, students will join forces in February to sing Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem at Walt Disney Concert Hall in collaboration with the American Youth Symphony, and presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
There is also an exciting performance this spring featuring our Senior Division at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. In July, students will tour Scotland, Wales, and England, ending the trip with a high-profile performance in London with world-renowned Voces8, in addition to recording the NCC’s first-ever holiday album at Abbey Road Studios.
Our Vail Opera Camp in August will be the final installment of our 2022/23 Season entitled Resounding Voices. More information can be found at www.nationalchildrenschorus.com
