The Choirs   I   Martha Shaw   I   Craig Hurley   I   Judy Mason   I   Steven Wooddell

Dedicated to excellence, the Spivey Hall Children's Choir Program has provided exemplary choral music education to its singers since 1994. Comprised of both male and female students ages 10 through 18, this treble choir program is for soprano and alto singers. Consisting of three choirs, the program draws students from 18 metro-Atlanta counties, offering them professional-level instruction in vocal pedagogy, music theory, sight singing, ear training, and presentation as well as exposure to a variety of choral styles. Involvement also enhances young people's lives, helping them to develop self-reliance, personal integrity, responsibility, compassion, and confidence in their abilities.

The Spivey Hall Children's Choir has three CDs available for sale. To order Christmas with the Spivey Hall Children's Choir, Homeland, or I’ll Be Seeing You, please call (678) 466-4200 or email Spivey Hall. CDs are $15 each.

Membership

Membership into the program is contingent upon an audition and teacher recommendations. Auditions are for students ages 10 through 13 and are held once each spring. Upon acceptance, members may continue in the choir until their high school graduation, auditioning again only to move into another choir. There is an annual tuition with need-based assistance available to those who qualify.

Rehearsals and Performances

Rehearsals are held each Monday evening throughout the school year at Spivey Hall and Clayton State University's Music Education Building. All choir members have the opportunity to showcase their accomplishments twice a year at holiday concerts in December and spring concerts in May. These ticketed performances take place at Spivey Hall and are open to the public. Additional performances by the advanced Tour Choir are presented at other venues throughout the year.

The Choirs

Spivey Hall Young Artists

Founded in the fall of 2002, the Spivey Hall Young Artists feature 60 students ages 10 through 13. Under the direction of Craig Hurley, the Young Artists provide greater access and opportunity for children to receive quality choral education, and enables students to acquire the skills they need to participate in the Spivey Hall Children's Choir.

Spivey Hall Children's Choir & Tour Choir

Founded in the spring of 1994, the Spivey Hall Children's Choir consists of 120 singers ages 10 through 18. Dr. Martha Shaw, artistic director of the program, conducts this choir as well as its advanced counterpart, the Tour Choir. This select ensemble, comprised of the 50 most advanced singers in the Children's Choir, is the traveling performance group for the choir. Students in the Tour Choir commit to a more extensive rehearsal and performance schedule, including an annual summer tour, which has taken them throughout the United States and abroad.

Martha Shaw

Artistic Director
Spivey Hall Children’s Choir Program

Martha Shaw is the founding director of the Spivey Hall Children's Choir Program and Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Shorter College in Rome, Georgia. Under her direction, the Spivey Hall Tour Choir has been featured in performances for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, and for the national conference of the Orff-Schulwerk Association. Because of the artistry and mature vocal sound exhibited by the choir, Dr. Shaw has received numerous invitations as a clinician and guest conductor throughout the United States, in Canada and in Korea.

Dr. Shaw earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting with Larry Wyatt at the University of South Carolina, where she also served on the faculty. Her undergraduate degree is in music education from Shorter College, and she studied with Donald Neuen while earning a Master of Science degree in music education from the University of Tennessee. Her fifteen years of experience as a public school music specialist in Georgia's Fulton County Schools contribute significantly to her work both at Shorter College and at Spivey Hall.

Craig Hurley

Director, Spivey Hall Young Artists

Craig Hurley is the conductor of the Spivey Hall Young Artists, the training choir of the Spivey Hall Children's Choir Program. Mr. Hurley is currently the music specialist at Kingston Elementary School in Kingston, Georgia where he teaches general music to kindergartners through fifth graders. Under Mr. Hurley's direction the Kingston Chorus has received top ratings at chorus festival as well as been invited to perform at the annual Shorter College Feaste of Caroles Concert. He was also named teacher of the year for Kingston Elementary School in 2002. Prior to teaching at Kingston Elementary, Mr. Hurley taught middle school chorus in Gainesville, Georgia. Mr. Hurley has served as a guest conductor for several honor choirs in the Northwest Georgia area. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Shorter College with an emphasis in voice, where he studied with Dr. Martha Shaw, and a Master of Early Childhood Education from Berry College.

Judy Mason

Accompanist,
Spivey Hall Children’s Choir

Judy Kerlin Mason holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education from Shorter College and a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she studied with Donald Neuen and Anthony Palmer. She is assistant director and accompanist of the Spivey Hall Children’s Choir and has accompanied state and regional honors and all-state choruses as well as church choirs for over three decades.

Mrs. Mason appeared as a singer for many years with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and with the Memphis Vocal Arts Ensemble. She has also appeared as a conductor with Helmuth Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival. Mrs. Mason taught choral music and theory in the Atlanta and Fulton County public schools for ten years. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and Pi Kappa Lambda.

Steven Wooddell

Accompanist,
Spivey Hall Young Artists Choir

Steven Wooddell is the accompanist of the Spivey Hall Young Artists. Originally from Roanoke, Virginia, Mr. Wooddell moved to Winston-Salem, NC to complete high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He received his bachelor of music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied organ under Todd Wilson, and a master in organ performance degree under Larry Palmer. He is currently the director of music at First Presbyterian Church in Rome, GA. He also serves as an accompanist for the Shorter Chorale at Shorter College.