Spotlight
In 2001, there was no choir program at St. Isaac Jogues. Just over a decade later, it’s the most popular extracurricular activity at the school.
Mallory Turner steps up to the microphone.
Photos courtesy of Jim Legner
Building a Program by mike ellis
A
ccolades, excellence, respect—the choir program at St. Isaac Jogues in Hinsdale has all three of these. The Cadence choir has won the Chicagoland Showcase competition— which features 11-14 top-performing choirs throughout the Midwest—the last two years and five times overall. But there are no tryouts held to gain admission into Cadence, or for the other St. Isaac’s choirs, because for director Julie Petrando, the children’s choir experience is not about ribbons and trophies. “I don’t audition,” Petrando said. “I don’t believe in it anymore at this level, because I believe that my job is to invite as many kids to embrace and experience the arts [as possible]. “I feel like [choir] is a place where everyone can be successful. Not everyone can be an athlete, not everyone can be an academic leader or scholar; but I believe firmly that everyone can
succeed in the arts if they are completely committed and willing to work hard.” Founded in the fall of 2002, the St. Isaac’s choir program has grown into the most popular extracurricular activity at the school. It now features four choirs: Angel, an elementary girls’ choir, Crusaders, an elementary boys’ choir, Spirit, a middle-school choir for those who did not participate in choir previously, and Cadence, a competitive middle-school show choir for boys and girls who participated in choir at the elementary level. “There was a group of parents that wanted a choir program formed at [St. Isaac’s],” Petrando said. “They had a director lined up, and at the last minute, that director pulled out. It was kind of a perfect storm, because I was starting maternity leave at my full-time teaching position in Wheaton, and they asked me if I could come in for a year and work with 47 second- through eighth-graders once a week. “Long story short,—that one year - Continued on page 27
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