What's New?| | See a full list of records and songs recorded by the Inland Children's Chorus linked near the top of the music page. Coming in June: a slideshow created from four sets of photos from this year's luncheon and an upcoming feature article on this event.| |See previous What's New postings |>>

Welcome to the Web home of the Inland Children's Chorus!

This site is dedicated to preserving and making widely available the history and music of the Inland Children's Chorus, which was an original and historically unique contribution by American industry to young people, the community, and the performing arts.

The Chorus was sponsored from 1936 to 1970 by the Inland Manufacturing Division of General Motors Corporation to give 8- to 16-year-old children of employees "a musical education and training which they otherwise might not be able to obtain and to make a contribution to the cultural life of Inland employees and the community." Inland hired Broadway theatrical designer and Tony Award nominee Raymond Sovey to stage the concerts. The Chorus often performed with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and gained national acclaim on radio and television. The Inland Children's Chorus has been called "one of Dayton's greatest by-products of industry." (link)

John D. O'Brien (audio recording), Inland General Manager, reflects on the history of the Chorus and suggests why a large corporation might value tradition and the performing arts. Learn the history of Inland: GM Heritage Center (link) and 50th anniversary booklet.

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Special Collections and Archives, located in the Wright State University Libraries in Dayton, Ohio, works with this website to collect and to preserve materials related to the Inland Children's Chorus (link to MS-432). See photos from the meeting at Wright State to launch the Inland Children's Chorus Collection on the about us page.

Please help complete this history by sharing your comments or memories on the forum page and by contributing photos, recordings, or other materials to the website and Special Collections. For more information, see the media fact sheet or write alred@inlandchorus.com.