"Shine" Theme Elementary Choral Program

Sometime in the last few years I became a person who chooses my elementary choir concert pieces to fit a unifying theme. For our spring concert this year we are going to be doing a theme of "shine"! I always include a mixture of traditional choral pieces (usually with at least one non-English song) and modern/ pop songs, and this concert includes all of those! I'll also share some of the other songs I considered that I didn't end up using but would also fit the theme well and would work well with elementary chorus.

I found the pop song for this program a couple of years ago when I was looking for something else and I've been trying to find a way to fit it into a chorus concert ever since! I ended up finding a complete program around the theme of shining light, which seems fittingly hopeful for current times.

Brighter Days by Emeli Sandé I am going to have the 2nd verse be solos, and add a lower parallel harmony on the chorus.

Let the Sun Shine Down by Peter Johns This is a nice, easy two part arrangement that includes singing the melody in unison, then in canon, then as a partner song. There are a few lyrics I changed to avoid religious connotations since I have some students who wouldn't be able to sing it otherwise, but it was simple changes (like changing "God speed" to "peace be"). 

Shining Moon (Ngam Sang Duan) traditional Thai arr. Audrey Snyder I wanted to have a song about the moon shining as well, and when I came across this 2-part arrangement of a Thai song (which I was able to verify is in fact commonly sung in Thailand) I knew this was the one! There are lyrics in English included but I am planning to have my students sing only in Thai. It is mostly in unison or in canon but also includes a few parallel harmony spots so it should be another accessible song for my group.

Besides these, I found several other choral pieces I considered doing that are a similar level of difficulty and fit the theme very nicely:

Kokoleoko traditional Liberian arr. Victor Johnson I wasn't sure if I could get my current group to really buy into this one but I'm definitely keeping it for future consideration!

Hola, Media Luna by Laura and Eddie Cavazos If I hadn't just done a song in Spanish this year I probably would have done this one!

I Want to Rise by Mark Weston I did this one a few years ago and I decided it was too soon to do again but it would also fit this theme!

Any of the songs I used for my "Stars" theme concert from a few years ago would fit well here too, and there are actually quite a few pop songs I've already done in other previous concerts that would also fit:

Cover Me in Sunshine by Pink

Waiting on a Sunny Day by Bruce Springsteen

Brighter Day by Michael Franti

I confess I actually considered doing an entire concert of just "Brighter Day(s)" songs, with Emeli Sandé song I'm doing this year, The Michael Franti song listed above, and Brighter Days by Blessing Offor... I decided it was too confusing but if someone decides to go for it let me know! :)

I'm really excited about this program and I think the students and the audience will enjoy it as well! You can see all of the themed elementary choral programs I've put together in this post if you're looking for more great songs:

And if you want to see all of my posts related to teaching elementary choir, from rehearsal techniques to my favorite songs, arranging pieces for elementary choir to my favorite warmups, you can see them all here.