Primo Voce – CYC’s youngest ensemble, a beginning choir for singers just starting their vocal journey.
Cantare – a developing treble ensemble singing unison and two-part repertoire.
Opus – a treble ensemble singing two- and three-part repertoire as well as focus on vocal independence
Virtuoso – an advanced treble ensemble performing three- to four-part repertoire with a focus on advanced musicianship.
Spiritus – an advanced chamber ensemble of mixed SATB voices.
Tour Choir – a select group of singers from Virtuoso and Spiritus ensembles who participate in our bi-annual performance tour
Capriccio Youth Choir also offers singers an opportunity to share the stage with some of Central Ohio’s most accomplished vocal musicians and conductors. Under Founding Artistic Director Alyson Bates, the Capriccio Youth Choir sang with the Central Ohio Symphony, the Ohio Wesleyan University Choral Arts Society and BalletMet Columbus in addition to its appearances at Capriccio Columbus concerts.
Capriccio Youth Choir enjoys collaborating with a variety of composers. In our 2020-2021 season, singers from Virtuoso performed with the South Shore Children’s Chorus as well as other choristers from across the country in a virtual collaboration of Moira Smiley’s Rise to It Now. This allowed the singers to rehearse with Ms. Smiley as well as create alongside her through the workshop.
In October of 2016, the choirs enjoyed the opportunity to host such a collaboration with Columbus-native composer Kevin Foster. This workshop festival included extending the opportunity to area high school choirs as well as the combined performance of a commissioned work of Foster’s.
The Capriccio ensembles also hosted internationally renowned composer Stacey V. Gibbs in a similar festival in October of 2015, concluding with a performance conducted entirely by Mr. Gibbs. Spiritus Choir then had the honor of premiering Try Real Love, an arrangement from Mr. Gibbs, the following month.
Other special performances include the Virtuoso and Spiritus choir’s performance of Bengi Lele, a commissioned work of Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory sponsored by Chorus America in the spring of 2015, and the combination of all choirs in November of 2014 to perform the Ohio premier of Lumen, a work by Abbie Betinis.