As the San Diego Children’s Choir celebrates our 35th anniversary, we wanted to take time to honor our founder, Polly Campbell.
The following post references the LA Times article “COVER STORY: Kids Keep Music Alive: Young Voices Soar, Meet Music Challenge” by Triveni Sheshadri, December 5, 1991.
Great ideas often come from identifying gaps. Polly Campbell, founder and music director of the San Diego Children’s Choir until her passing in 2000, identified that gap was access to choral music education for children in San Diego. As a longtime music educator, Campbell saw firsthand the lack of opportunities for young singers to receive high-quality choral training. So in 1990, she took action and founded the San Diego Children’s Choir.
In a 1991 LA Times article, Campbell explained her motivation: “We are not living in a society where singing is a favored or practiced activity. There is a vacuum,” she said. It was this “vacuum” in accessible choral music education that inspired her to start the Choir in the fall of 1990.
During her tenure, the Choir served hundreds of children, primarily ranging in ages from 8 to 15. “Most students had little or no musical training before they came to the choir”, Campbell said in the LA Times article. “This is the training experience. When I audition children, what I am looking for is the ability to sing on pitch and in tune, and a pretty voice, but really nothing beyond that.”
April 1994, Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park
“The goal of the program isn’t to turn out professional musicians,” Campbell emphasized. “Our goal is to train children who will love great music, who can sing fine choral music but also gain an appreciation of music so that they will become future concert-goers, people who will love music even if they don’t continue singing,” she added.
“Last year we did fairly serious classical music by great composers, music that 8-year-olds would never have thought of approaching,” Campbell said. “Most of them were pretty enthralled with it. Given the opportunity, children have that special quality to appreciate music.”
December 1994, Sea World
Those who knew Polly and saw her impact on the San Diego Children’s Choir agree that she was a dedicated and passionate advocate for childhood music education. Sandra Timmons, former board chair and longtime supporter of the Choir, whose two children sang under Polly’s direction, shared:
"San Diego Children's Choir created a community of students who loved to sing - they may not have been friends had they not been in choir, but the Choir was a place to join together to create something bigger than themselves and to value others for their dedication and collaboration. Today, most are not professional singers, but many have continued to seek out other dedicated people and groups and sing with the same passion and joy they had in the San Diego Children's Choir."
December 1995, Darlington House La Jolla
The legacy of Polly Campbell lives on. Artistic Director, Ruthie Millgard, says this about the goal of the program: “Polly Campbell aimed to create lifelong lovers and appreciators of music, to expose more San Diego youth to high quality music and performance opportunities, working towards creating confident young people who would become positive contributors to society. The organization continues to hold these values at the core of our programming. Although Polly didn't directly educate most of the children who have benefited from the San Diego Children's Choir, her influence has reached every single one.”
Today the San Diego Children’s Choir impacts over 2,000 children annually through our Ensemble, School Outreach and Introductory programs, coming from over 200 schools countywide.
See the 2025 San Diego Children’s Choir perform at the 35th Annual Spring Concert, Sunday, June 1 at the Jacobs Music Center. Learn more.