Sounds of Hope
Celebrating, Educating, Discovering
About Songs of Hope
WHAT EXACTLY IS SONGS OF HOPE™, you might ask. Songs of Hope™ is our award-winning music project, the heart of what we do. There's nothing quite like it in the world because the project offers you two fantastic experiences all at once: FIRST, the project is an international living experience. Every summer, Songs of Hope™ assembles youth performers in Minnesota from a changing mix of countries worldwide. New participants come as "international delegations" of a boy and girl from each country accompanied by an adult companion. Everybody lives together and you learn from one other through daily living experiences, fun games, and challenging activities led by an experienced and energetic staff. SECOND, the project is all about creating and presenting serious art. During your first three weeks, the days are filled with lively rehearsals focused on singing, dancing, and learning to be a superb performer. You learn from an outstanding staff of professional musicians and artists and you quickly become a confident, competent performer. During the next three weeks, you are presenting concerts almost every day. The annual Songs of Hope™ tour is nationally recognized for its outstanding artistic quality and so you become a young artist performing with something truly special! 
AN OUTSTANDING MUSICAL PERFORMANCE PROJECT FOR GIRLS AND BOYS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE! If you live anywhere in the world, and you are aged 10 to 13, and you love to sing, and you think you might enjoy being on stage, and you like the idea of living and performing with children from other countries, then you should consider being part of our Songs of Hope™ project which runs from June to August every summer. More than a summer music camp, Songs of Hope™ offers participants a unique opportunity to experience the world, to share cultures, and to learn and perform music from many countries. If you're interested in applying for this innovative and exciting project, email us or call us at 651-225-4179.
LIFE AS A NEW PARTICIPANT IS COOL AND EXCITING! New international children join local U.S. children of the same age in a live-in community that also includes past participants who may return up to age 16. You all live together in a dormitory at the University of St. Thomas or at Concordia University, Saint Paul. You will have two or three roommates, all from different countries, all speaking different languages, eating different foods, dressing differently, styling your hair differently, brushing your teeth with different flavors of toothpaste. Do you note a recurring theme? “Different” is the exciting, new world that opens each summer for the young Songs of Hope™ performers.
While you are all living together, you play staff-led cultural games, learning about each other’s countries and more importantly, learning about each other’s daily lives. Living together, you will make lifelong friends - from countries around the world!
HARD WORK AND REWARDS ABOUND! While the Songs of Hope™ performers are together, you work hard to create a wondrous concert. In daily rehearsals of six hours or more, you learn songs from every country participating in that summer’s project, in original languages and in the music style of the cultures. You will learn traditional dances that accompany folk songs. You learn new dance movements to enliven the songs. You learn to play drumbeats from cultures around the world. Working and sharing, and supported by professional artists, you will discover one day that you are ready for an 18-day concert tour of 20, 25, or more appearances.
The Songs of Hope™ concert tour reaches audiences throughout Minnesota and in neighboring states. Songs of Hope™ performs at summer festivals and in city concert series, in hospitals and nursing homes, at youth agencies and senior centers, in museums, schools, community centers, company cafeterias, places of worship, and practically any venue you can imagine, for audiences of all ages, cultures, abilities, and disabilities.
Songs of Hope™ is led by Jeanne Junge, Artistic Director, and Tom Surprenant, Program Director. Well-known Twin Cities percussionist, Mick LaBriola, has been Instrumental Director from the project’s beginning. Other outstanding musicians and choreographers add their talents each summer, and the project’s annual staff includes a “Junior Team” comprised of outstanding Songs of Hope™ alumni aged 14-21.
For more information about Songs of Hope™, about how you or children you know can participate in the project, or, for those of you who are concert sponsors, about bookings for the annual summer concert tour, email us.
