Update on Community Choirs and Singing in the United States

Abstract

This article reviews and responds to recent reports by professional music and arts associations, most prominently the 2003 Chorus America study, announcing that over 23 million American adults sing weekly in community-based choirs. By considering this recent research in combination with studies of community choirs spanning the past 40 years, this article presents an updated literature review of the research on adult amateur singers. These studies produce a consistent demographic and musical profile of today’s adult amateur singer and point to collective universal issues facing community choirs, such as diversity, gender, and developing communication systems. In focusing on