OUR MISSION

CAL works to preserve a tradition and discipline of choral development by providing children the opportunity to develop leadership skills, to enhance their education, and to grow artistically and professionally.

OUR HISTORY

Choral Arts Link’s flagship program MET Singers, started  in 1997 to answer the call from community members for a youth chorus to perform in the annual MLK community concert at the Nashville Symphony. Soon, the MET Singers grew beyond the event to a year-round choral initiative, and Choral Arts Link was officially founded as a nonprofit in 2004. From the very beginning and in every iteration, Margaret Campbelle-Holman has guided this organization as Founder and Artistic Director for over 27 years.

Ms Margaret Campbelle-Holman grew up in Nashville and studied at Heidelberg University in Ohio. She began her teaching career in Ohio, then Memphis Tennessee and Sarasota Florida, before moving back to Nashville in the early 1980s. In Nashville, Campbelle-Holman found that inclusively instructive methods of teaching music were little known to the local public school system, while in contrast, private schools and surrounding counties had various opportunities. She made it her mission to provide choral arts and integrated learning to any child.

Choral Arts Link’s flagship youth chorus program, MET Singers, began in 1997 as an Honor Choir consisting of students in grades 4 – 12. Under the direction of Margaret Campbelle-Holman and an all-volunteer faculty, The MET Singers have performed regularly with The Nashville Symphony as the Celebration Youth Chorus, lending its voices to the annual Let Freedom Sing concert honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The choir has consistently fostered high-quality music education opportunities for youth from public, private, charter and home school settings throughout middle Tennessee.

Choral Arts Link has continued to be a vital partner in the Middle Tennessee and Nashville area for decades, creating and adapting programming to respond to the needs of the community. Programs like Summer Academies, Artist Workshops, and multi-day Choral Intensives consistently provide high-quality music education and performance opportunities. Performances in the community have involved a broad array of partners, including Fisk University, Intersection Contemporary Ensemble, and others.

Choral Arts Link strives to redefine the music education canon to reflect the diversity of Middle Tennessee, not only by teaching from a diverse repertoire and partnering with a broad array of artists, but also by participating in the commission of new works by primarily BIPOC composers. Some of the commissioned works Choral Arts Link has participated in include:

2015 Drum Major for Justice Project – “The Drummer”, Dr. Paul Kwami, composer, M. Campbelle-Holman, lyricist.

• The project is called “The Drummer” and is a composition written for children’s chorus and orchestra. Based on a poem penned by Mrs. Campbelle-Holman and choral work composed by Dr. Paul Kwame, Director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, this work depicts a view of the Civil War. Premiered during the “Let Freedom Sing” concert.
• This included a community reception to meet the composers/artists, with panel discussion and engaged the audience through storytelling by members of the 13th Infantry Regiment United States Colored Troops (Re-Enactors), with an emphasis on the position, responsibility and sensibility of the drummer (expressed as an African American child), as found within the Civil War story.
• 2016 “I Hear the Drum” Dr. Cedric Dent, composer – performed in Jubilee Hall at Fisk Univ. The concert featured artist, Michael B. Hicks who shared his drum major journey as an artist, his calling to be a voice for youth against social injustices of today and his experience in Ferguson, Missouri.