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Mission: To challenge, to teach and to elevate—through music of the highest quality.

History: Rimrock Opera Chorus for Kids, ROCK, was founded by the Rimrock Opera in September 2004. Open to youth in the Billings area, ROCK is dedicated to providing quality music education and a variety of performance opportunities. Singers are selected by audition and participate in events throughout the school year.

Members: Currently, ROCK members represent schools in the Yellowstone River Valley region. Students span grades 1-12 in three different choirs, Dolce, Cantabile and Bel Canto.

Dolce Choir: Children in first through third grade are in the Dolce Choir. These youngest ROCK singers work on unison and two-part music, while learning music theory and history along with the basics of good vocal and choral technique.

Cantabile Choir: The largest ROCK group, Cantabile Choir, is a treble choir of students in grades four through nine. This large ensemble works on technique, theory, and challenging two-, three- and four-part choral music.

Bel Canto Choir: The Bel Canto Choir represents students in grades 8-12 and includes boys with changed voices and maturing girls' voices, performing three- and four-part music.

Goals: To encourage personal growth in listening skills, music reading skills, stage presence, poise, movement, diction, memorization and foreign language. To teach and nurture performing and auditioning skills. To promote the performance of quality choral, ensemble and solo music. To enrich our community by having a children’s choral group available for local performances, and to invest in our community by helping build consumers of the arts for the future.

Achievements: ROCK has grown dramatically since it’s inception in 2004. ROCK participates in community cultural events with a variety of different arts organizations. These collaborative efforts are very successful. For further information, please see press releases posted on this site.

The future: Since not every Rimrock Opera season offers an opera that includes children on stage, we would love to produce a full children’s opera in the coming years. We also hope for continuing collaboration with other community arts organizations.

Rimrock Opera Kids’ Camp: Camps are held in late June or early July for 5 days with a public performance held Friday afternoon. Kids are divided into Major Campers and Minor Campers. Campers meet for a week to enjoy learning about music, singing, and how to put on a stage production. Campers will prepare the music and the dialogue; even their costumes and makeup during this intense week of fun and education.

Auditions & Contact: If you have any questions about ROCK, Rimrock Opera Chorus for Kids, please contact General Director Douglas Nagel by phone 671-2214 or by .

Auditions- ROCK auditions are scheduled in early September for the fall semester and January for the winter semester. These are by appointment for students ages 7-17 for all 3 choirs.