"We feed them slower pieces to keep their vowels pure and keep them excited," Johnson said.

Every year they try to do one foreign language piece. To date they have done pieces in Spanish, German, Hebrew, Latin and Italian. Sometimes they choose only pieces from composers in a certain geographical area, other times it may be from different historical periods or musical styles. One year selection was based on the poetry of Robert Frost. Last year, Johnson said, they did an Americana concert featuring only pieces done by American composers.

"We're just three moms that really love music and want to provide a really good musical experience for our kids and our neighbors' kids, just for the joy of seeing them sing. You can see when the lights go on," Johnson said. "They learn so much and progress so much."

A choir is born . . . and grows

Mickelsen got the idea to form the choir because she wanted her own children to have a choral background. When she approached Johnson, her next-door neighbor, they agreed that starting a children's choir would be a good idea, especially as they both had children just the right age to be involved. They decided to add a third director to their partnership and invited Christensen, along with her children, to join.

The initial response to the choir was much higher than they anticipated. Johnson said they expected a couple dozen kids and instead got 70. The choir has continued growing so now there are 130 children participating in it.

"We have grown in membership every year. What's changed the most is that we have had to add a second choir to keep up with the interest, so we've made a preparatory choir," Mickelsen said.

The preparatory choir is for children without much exposure to music, while the concert choir is intended for children who have been in the choir for at least a year and can handle singing more complicated rhythms.

The cost to participate in either choir is very low. "We don't charge any tuition. The kids just have to buy a choir robe and pay a little bit for the music. Financially speaking, it's within reach for all children," Mickelsen said.

To become a choir member, each child had to go through an audition process and sing a song for the three directors. The audition was not intended as a way to weed out children who can't sing, but to test their voice type and range and see how comfortable they were with harmonizing, Johnson said.

More than just a choral experience

The choir was started mostly as a way to help the children gain a choral background, but it also has become a means to expose them to quality music.