Looking ahead: Youth Tour 2027!
For the young people who sing with us, music is more than something they do each week; it’s a way they come to understand themselves, each other, and the world around them. And every couple of years, that learning takes on a bigger stage.
We’re beginning now to plan our 2027 Youth Choir Tour, where singers in grades 6–12 from our Oakland Interfaith and Oakland Youth ensembles will travel together, perform together, and experience the world beyond their daily routines. While the final destination is still taking shape, one thing is certain: the impact will last a lifetime!
Combined Youth Tour to Vancouver, BC - 2024
Why We Start Now
A tour like this doesn’t come together overnight. Planning ahead allows us to do something essential: make the experience accessible to as many young people as possible.
Early fundraising helps determine not just where we go, but who gets to go. Our goal is always to remove financial barrier - working toward a “no one turned away for lack of funds” model whenever possible. Our adult singers and community step up in powerful ways to help subsidize youth travel, and every early gift expands what’s possible. One singer from OIGC personally raised $14,000 by hand-sewing and selling beautiful pouches around the community, as her own way to contribute.
What Youth Tours Make Possible
Over decades of touring, our singers have traveled to places like New Orleans, Costa Rica, Japan, Canada, and Washington, D.C. Our combined organization has organized more than 40 tours! For 2027, we anticipate a domestic trip packed with fun, food, music and memories. But the real journey is what happens within each young person along the way.
They build confidence navigating new environments.
They deepen their musicianship through performance.
They encounter new cultures, foods, and perspectives.
They form friendships and memories that stay with them for life.
On our most recent tour to Vancouver, one middle school singer stood at the edge of the group during our first rehearsal - quiet, observant, unsure. By the end of the trip, they were stepping forward to help lead warm-ups, laughing with new friends, and singing with a kind of confidence that hadn’t been there before. That transformation is why we do this.
Just as powerful is what we hear from our adult singers. Many participants in OIGC and OICC still light up when they talk about their own high school choir tour experiences: the friendships, the laughter, and the feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves. Those memories stay with us for life. In many instances, they’re why our adult singers continue to participate in choir - they are seeking the same sense of connection, purpose, and joy through music that our youth experience through trips like this.
Our Founding Artistic Director, Terrance Kelly, often shares that some of his longest friendships began on choir tours. He still has dear friends in Hawai‘i and Costa Rica from his own time as a young singer - connections that have lasted a lifetime. Today, his work continues to carry him around the world, where he visits friends and leads gospel workshops and choirs in places as far-reaching as Kenya, France, and Denmark. It’s a powerful reminder that the relationships formed through music don’t just shape a moment, they can shape a life.
Be Part of our Journey
As we look ahead to Summer 2027, we invite you to be part of what makes this experience possible.
Support the tour with a donation today! Early gifts help shape the scope, destination, and accessibility of the trip.
Join the choir this season, so your young person can be part of what we know will be an unforgettable journey.
Every note we sing on tour is backed by a community that believes in what music can do. Thank you for helping us carry these young voices further.
