Jena Dickey Shares the Young Voices of Colorado Vision of Creating Opportunity and Excellence

Everyone is born with a voice, but Jena Dickey has made a career out of ensuring that every child has a chance to bring theirs to life. A lifelong educator, she started Young Voices of Colorado in 1990 with the mission of delivering high-quality music education and vocal training to children of all backgrounds and musical aptitudes.

Today, her hard work has paid off. Young Voices has over 130 participants, and their commitment to inclusion and excellence has allowed them to perform at festivals throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and they’ve placed in several major international competitions. Her students regularly participate in events and masterclasses with other children’s choirs in Toronto, Berlin, Edinburgh, Cape Town, and Mumbai. They’ve developed a close friendship with a music school in the Republic of Georgia which will visit Denver this summer for YVC’s international festival Sing A Mile High. Finally, listeners have heard their kids singing on CBS Colorado as well as performing at Carnegie Hall in New York and Notre Dame in the heart of Paris.

By every measure, Jena and her kids have created something extraordinary that’s changing lives and filling ears with dreams and beautiful music. And this year, they are joining the Colorado Bach Ensemble to perform Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

We sat down with Jena to discuss the program, her vision for choral education in Colorado, and the joy of sharing this masterwork with her kids.

CBE: What inspired you to start Young Voices of Colorado?

Jena: I grew up on the oil industry belt in East Texas, and I was always told that music was fine but it wasn’t a career. Sputnik had just been launched, and the only acceptable career paths were math and engineering. But I was haunted by music, so midway through college I changed my major and never looked back.

Ever since I’ve had a burning desire to ensure kids have the opportunity to sing and a community to encourage them. When I turned 40, I just dropped everything, hung my shingle on the door, and here we are 35 years later!

CBE: Tell us about the program.

Jena: My vision was to start kids singing from anywhere—a big house in Cherry Hills or straight off the streets—and go from no musical training whatsoever to a clear tone, solid intonation, and sound musical fundamentals.

We start our littlest guys in our kindergarten and first-grade classes with Kodaly learning things adults take for granted. High and low, loud and soft, and lots of active practice and games.

It may sound simple, but do you know how many adults can’t do what these kids do effortlessly after a year or two? With the right foundation, children are capable of some pretty incredible things!

Then we have our grade school choir kids who we affectionately call the “Treble Makers”, and our top groups are split into boys and girls choirs. We combine them for a variety of events, and they each have their own featured performances.

CBE: What kinds of values does Young Voices instill?

Jena: A lot of our families are heavily into STEM but also love singing. I guess they’re a bit like me when I was growing up, right? We’ve had kids go to all kinds of big vocal performance schools, but the value of what we do is much broader than the joy of kids singing great songs.

We teach young people how to present themselves, understand the body they live in, and how to walk on a stage and perform. Our kids know how to put on a uniform, how to breathe together, and the importance of contributing to a group. They have to know their schedule and be respectful and responsible for the people around them.

All of these things are valuable skills that will follow them throughout their lives. Whether they go to Carnegie Hall or build a rocket ship, they’ll have the confidence and life skills they need to be successful.

CBE: We’re thrilled to have Young Voices joining us in February for the St. Matthew Passion! What has this experience been like?

Jena: We’re incredibly excited and honored to have this opportunity. You know, one of the challenges is communicating to our students how important the St. Matthew Passion is. They’re accustomed to singing all the time, but this piece really is something above and beyond. It’s one of the great experiences any singer can have!

Of course, we had to build it from the ground up. It’s in German, after all, so we brought in some diction specialists to help our kids learn how to pronounce the words.

Imagine being in fourth grade and learning to sing in German—not just speak it. It’s a big ask, and they’re doing an extraordinary job.

Then there’s the music. Bach is quite challenging because it’s pure. Everything has to be extremely in tune or the harmonies don’t make sense, and there’s no amount of showmanship that can make up for mistakes. But there are also basic details that professionals take for granted. Believe it or not, kids are squirmy! It’s a sizeable work, and we have to spend a little time talking about how to behave on stage and control those impulses.

CBE: What is most valuable about this experience?

Jena: You know, there’s no substitute for this anywhere in the world. This is something most people never get to do, and it will be an experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Having our kids singing with such incredible professionals on stage and performing one of the great masterworks of all time is the kind of inspirational and aspirational experience that drove me to start Young Voices in the first place, and we’re thrilled to be joining Dr. Kim and the Colorado Bach Ensemble.

To learn more about Young Voices of Colorado, visit their website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram to find out about upcoming concert dates, how to participate, and ways to support their work. And don’t forget to hear them live on February 21 and 23, 2025 for their performance of the St. Matthew Passion with the Colorado Bach Ensemble!