The World Children's Choir (WCC) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1990 by it's current Artistic Director, Sondra Harnes.
WCC has been appointed to the Artists Roster of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  We are proud to have performed for:
  • Former US Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, William H. Clinton, and George H. W. Bush.
  • Justices of the Supreme Court
  • Mikhail Gorbachev
  • Queen Noor of Jordan
  • Queen Sofia of Spain
  • Kofi Annan
Our choir has performed at the White House, the Kennedy Center, on Capital Hill and for various national and international television broadcasts.  We have traveled to New York City, Scotland, Canada, Ireland and Romania.
Leadership

"Our focus is on children.  Our mission is to train children to sing beautifully and artistically, so they may open the hearts of people everywhere to what is possible if we come together as one family to make a better world. We firmly believe in the power of music and song to bring children and communities together, to celebrate diversity, and help us become better citizens. We truly believe the angelic voices of the children singing their beautiful songs of love and peace can help us break through our differences, and inspire all of us to work together to build a better world."

Sondra Harnes
Artistic Director & CEO

Sondra Harnes, Artistic Director, is a lyric soprano, pianist, voice teacher, and conductor.  Her mother taught her to sing when she was six months old. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Southeast Missouri State University, Master of Music from The Catholic University of America, and sang in the Professional Studies Program at the Juilliard School.

During her distinguished career she won many contests, performed on radio and television, appeared with numerous symphony orchestras, oratorio societies, opera companies, and in concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, United Nations, and Carnegie Hall.

She has coached professional singers and given private lessons, master classes,  and workshops for voice students of all ages; conducted choirs and operetta productions throughout the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. She developed her singing program for young children at the Montessori School of McLean in Virginia.

In March of 1990 at the request of several World Bank families, Ms. Harnes founded the World Children’s Choir. In addition to conducting rehearsals, season concerts and special event performances, she produced five World Children’s Choir CDs, three recordings that help children learn how to sing, and two international virtual choir videos.

James Selway
Music Director

James Jillson Selway, Music Director, is a graduate of The Juilliard School and The Catholic University of America. Mr. Selway maintains a Suzuki piano studio of 35 students. He is the organist and choir director at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia.

As a clinician specializing in the Suzuki method, Mr. Selway has taught piano and given music theater workshops at many institutes and workshops in the United States, Canada, and  Bermuda.

He has performed in opera and oratorio. Mr. Selway is the composer of many pieces for voice, treble and mixed chorus, and for solo piano.  “With One Dream,” written after September 11, 2001, has been recorded by the World Children’s Choir and has been published by Warner Brothers.

He has composed many songs for World Children’s Choir, and for both adult and youth choirs at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.