Vegas City Opera Children’s Chorus plans 1st holiday concert

Dennis Doubin wants other kids to share the joy that music brought into his life as a child.

“I’ve for a long time wanted to run a chorus that was based on my own musical beginnings,” said Doubin, music director and conductor of the Vegas City Opera, who’s also on the staff of the L.A. Opera and San Francisco Opera and is a resident of Las Vegas. As a child, he attended the Moscow Choral Academy.

“The dream is to sort of emulate or model our education here on that,” he said. “We’ll see. We’re still starting. It will require a lot of ingredients. We’re still in the first steps.”

He launched his dream with the Vegas City Opera Children’s Chorus, which is in its inaugural year. The chorus’ progress thus far will be showcased to the community in a holiday concert at 7 p.m. Friday at the Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St. (Tickets, priced at $1 to $50 so guests can pay what they wish, are available at bit.ly/3EFVzSZ.)

Doubin said the concert will incorporate various musical elements, with an adult opera soloist performing their own selection of operatic music and holiday favorites. The kids will sing with the soloist at some point, at some point on their own, “and all kinds of fun things,” he said.

The chorus made its debut in November with “La BoDEAD,” a zombie-themed take on “La Boheme,” at the Charleston Heights Arts Center.

“We had six performances, a really supportive audience,” Doubin said. “Every musical educator knows you have to have the support of parents. We always have to have one — if not two — stage parent. I think we have at least one stage parent per child, which is exactly what we want.”

Some of the kids, who range in age from 6 to 16, have some musical background, while some can’t even read music. And for the concert they’ll be performing in Italian, German and Latin as well as English.

“Musically speaking, we’re really in our infancy,” Doubin said. “It’s tough because we’re basically an after-school program, and we’re able to get the kids later in the evening once a week.” And performing can be a little daunting for some children.

“When kids want to be part of a performing arts organization, they understand that they have a strong performance element, that they’ll be onstage,” he said. “We always assume we’ll get theatrical kids. Some kids want to perform; some are a little more fearful.” After the run of “La BoDEAD,” he said, “They all sort of came out OK and very happy.”

Ginger Land-van Buuren, executive director of Vegas City Opera, said chorus members come from diverse backgrounds, with a majority from the Charleston Heights area and others from Henderson and Aliante. She said a lot of the families are involved with Super Summer Theatre.

“They are very engaged with the community,” she said.

Recruitment has been through word of mouth and the Vegas City Opera’s Facebook page. Sponsor Jeri Crawford also was instrumental, she said. About 75 percent of the kids are on scholarship. There are 18 members, with a goal of 50 by next year.

“It takes a long time to develop a good choral group,” Doubin said. “We’ve just started. As the kids get older and more proficient, I’d like to get them solo singing exposure and professional experience.

“Generally speaking, we at Vegas City Opera are firm believers that substantive cultural and educational offerings are what constitute a developed city and society at large. So we just want to add to the musical environment of the children of Las Vegas.”

For more information on Vegas City Opera and the children’s chorus or to register for the winter/spring session, visit vegascityopera.org.

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.