Lori:  Just a few random thoughts.  By all means be networking with local high school and college choral directors, but whatever else you do do NOT present yourselves as competition.  Some teachers may be very open, but others may be very protective of "their" program and students.  A nice looking notice that can be put on their bulletin boards would probably be a good idea, but don't base it on "we do better music than you can do at school," even if it happens to be true!  But if it IS true, students themselves will spread the message.  And a receptive teacher, especially middle or high school, may see it as benefitting their program by giving advanced students more challenging music that will make them more valuable to their school ensembles.

 

Our community band attracts a number of high school, university, and even middle school students, but mostly on an individual basis and mostly by word of mouth.  Friends ask friends, so they'll have friends in your ensemble.  Sometimes, for the university students, they prefer to avoid the regimentation of university ensembles, or simply can't devote the time that university ensembles may demand.

 

Definitely stay aware of and DO NOT conflict with the performance, festival, and touring schedules of the school ensembles, and realize that students have to set priorities if conflicts DO turn up so you can't be hard nosed about demanding attendance and participation.

 

Contacting home schoolers is a marvelous idea.  And so would at least providing flyers to churches that have youth choirs, but again don't present it as competition for the students already in their programs.

All the best,

John

You might find it more successful to try to find an entire choir or choir program for an exchange experience, or to share one of your concert programs, as opposed to recruiting individual members. Last year we coupled with a local community choir that wanted to do some outreach and hopefully eventually recruit some younger members. Also they were hoping to bolster their concert attendance. We sang a piece with them as a combined choir on their spring concert. The experience of singing in a more advanced choir with some paid ringers, much bigger numbers and a fuller, richer sound was indeed a very motivating experience for my high school choristers. Their director came in to workshop the piece during one of our regular rehearsals, and the whole experience was very positive. Alas that director no longer is working with that choir, and they haven't shown an interest in working with us under their new director. But I thought that it was a low-maintenance, easy model for a collaboration that could have benefitted both of our programs over time.

As far as recruiting at schools is concerned, make sure your message is "When you graduate, please consider continuing your journey with choral music by joining our choir." As opposed to "Join our choir now!" For obvious reasons.

 

As far as recruiting individuals members is concerned, make sure that you fully promote all of your concerts to the school choirs in your area. Be on a first name basis with all of the choir directors, and make sure that you attend their concerts as well, as a show of support. Send your flyers to these directors well in advance of concert, and considering give the students from these programs a special discount, below even your regular student discount. Send a few comp tickets for the director and his/her family. Consider comping the students from the choirs that you want to recruit from, or at least don't make them pay any more than, say, $3-$5 to see your programs. Also, offer to do workshops or clinics for these choirs, so the students get to know you and see you as somebody that they'd like to work with in the future. See if they might need some voice teachers to do low-cost voice lessons after school - either you, your accompanist, or your choristers could fill this need, but you'd have to go through the right district channels to make it happen.

Lori - I would have to echo Bruce's comment on the "consider joining in the future" rubric.  Here's why:  especially at the high school level, students are positively inundated with the administrivia of education:  homework, projects, the need to be "doing" something with extracurricular activities, SATs, PSATs, college searches, etc., etc., etc. - necessary stuff for today's "must-succeed" generation(s) (their own and their parents'!).  The effort to recruit high schoolers especially, but also to a lesser extent college students, is dictated primarily by time and interest.  Consider the Biblical comment by Christ:  "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  The "spirit" in this case is interest:  I have no doubt there are probably a percentage who would be interested.  But the "flesh" is all those other things I mentioned earlier.  I understand the drive:  to get younger voices in the group and to build the group downward in age - and that's something many of us deal with, community as well as church choirs - so as to build for the future.  But high schoolers and collegiates are a thin reed - the choir WILL take second place (or third, or fourth, or whatever) for all those other things, which drive them (and their parents) to do what they're doing at this time.  By all means, see if there's interest; but if not, don't be surprised.

 

Ron