The San Diego Children’s Choir (SDCC) was founded in 1990 to provide children with high quality choral music education. People know us for our Ensemble Choirs who sing at the San Diego Symphony Noel Noel concerts, the Voices for Children Gala, Padres games, and many more. What you might not know is that SDCC teaches music education in schools including a major collaboration with DEEP (Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership) in southeastern San Diego. SDCC now serves more than 1,200 kids annually through its School Outreach Program.

Since 2017 SDCC has collaborated with DEEP schools to integrate music into the pre-K through 3rd grade curriculum. This 2022-23 school year, SDCC and DEEP co-funded Early Years Music Sessions in 52 classrooms at four partner Title 1 San Diego Unified School District elementary schools (Chollas-Mead, Webster, Johnson and Encanto). More than 1,200 children learned about rhythm, beat, melody, and teamwork with weekly 30-minute music sessions this season. To date, SDCC has served more than 2,800 pre-K through 3rd grade students at DEEP schools.

DEEP is a collaboration of multiple partner organizations and community leaders committed to improving educational outcomes for students attending public schools in the Diamond community. Much of the success of this collaboration has been due to the leadership of Gina Gianzero, who has served as founding executive director at DEEP for the past 12 years. She is a fierce advocate for children that are less fortunately positioned early in life. Under her leadership, many children have pursued and achieved reading proficiency. DEEP has won awards, including Guidestar Transparency 2023 and Great Nonprofits 2022, as well as recognition by San Diego Foundation, San Diego Magazine, Daily Press, and others. It is Gina’s belief that, “A child who has learned to read is empowered as a thinker, a scholar, and a creator.” Gina is retiring as executive director of DEEP, and SDCC is privileged to have collaborated with her. Her passion, kindness and dedication to enriching children’s lives are inspiring.

Carrie Cottriall, Executive Director of the San Diego Children’s Choir, had this to say about the Choir's collaboration with DEEP, “SDCC is committed to deepening and expanding our programs for music literacy and early music education at the DEEP schools. We are grateful for past support from the Peggy and Robert Matthews Foundation, funding from the California Arts Council, and major gifts from Kathleen Ogilvie, Sarah Varki, and Raghukul Tilak, which helps DEEP schools continue to impact children’s lives in southeastern San Diego. SDCC welcomes Allison Ohle as the new executive director at DEEP and looks forward to continuing our collaboration to change children’s lives through music education and elevate our communities together.”

SDCC’s School Outreach Program has earned overwhelming support from the teachers, parents and, most importantly, the kids at participating schools. As one parent shared “we are just loving all the songs our daughter is learning and singing at home!”

Learn more about the SDCC’s School Outreach Program.