VocalEssence is thrilled to be the first choir nationally to offer the Lullaby Project, a national program of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. The Lullaby Project creates musical experiences for women facing pregnancy while enduring other hardships, such as teenage pregnancy, homelessness, or incarceration.

Lullabies are powerful tools for parents. According to research, the experience of writing a lullaby promotes bonding with the baby (a key predictor in the future success of children), boosts development and attachment by encouraging moms to communicate with their children, and build parents’ confidence by generating a sense of accomplishment in creating a song for their baby.

This season, VocalEssence is pairing African American teen moms at Longfellow Alternative High School in Minneapolis with local composers, Associate Conductor G. Phillip Shoultz, III, and members of the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers. Together they create a lullaby that embodies the hopes and dreams the mother has for her baby. The lullabies will be recorded, and performed for friends and family this winter. Read about the impact of the program and listen to lullabies recorded in the 2017 and 2016 Lullaby Projects.

Longfellow Alternative High School is a district-wide alternative school program of the Minneapolis Public Schools and Teen Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting {TAPP} Program.  The school is a community of students, staff, families, and county and community partners working collaboratively to promote generational self-sufficiency among pregnant and parenting teens.

For more information about the Lullaby Project, contact VocalEssence at info@vocalessence.org or 612-547-1451. Learn more about Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project through this New York Times Magazine video.