Group.

Artistic Director Dr. Sylvia Munsen founded the Ames Children's Choirs (ACC) program in 1995. The program includes boys and girls ages 8-16 from central Iowa communities singing in three choirs: Concert Choir, Chorale and the Preparatory Choir. A fourth ensemble, the Chamber Singers, is a smaller ensemble from the Concert Choir. ACC focuses on the development of self-esteem through artistic experience and is utilized as part of teacher training for choral music education students at Iowa State University (ISU).

Notable performances for the Concert Choir include: the World Premiere of John Rutter's Mass of the Children at Carnegie Hall with the composer as conductor; solo concerts at Washington's National Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, and Temple Square in Salt Lake City, a performance with the Des Moines Symphony for the World Food Prize Laureate Program and a concert for the Meredith Willson Centennial in Mason City. The choir has performed in ISU residencies with composers John Corigliano and Libby Larsen and in a master class with Cantus. ACC singers have performed four times with Simon Estes in MCCF and ISU Celebrate America concerts.

The Concert Choir has been selected to perform concerts for numerous conferences, including: North Central American Choral Directors Association (NCACDA) in 2008 and 2002, Midwest Kodaly Music Educators of America (2007), the Organization of American Kodaly Educators Association (2007), American Orff-Schulwerk Association (2006), and the 60th Michigan Music Educators Association Conference (2005). The choir has served as the demonstration choir with Dr. Munsen as clinician for numerous conference interest sessions including MKMEA, AOSA, and NCACDA. In addition, the choir has performed several times for Iowa associations: Iowa Choral Directors Association (ICDA) and Iowa Music Educators Association. The Concert Choir will be a featured choir (performance and interest session) for the ICDA Summer Symposium in July 2009.

Annual concert tours have been conducted throughout the Midwest to the following locations: Ann Arbor, Champaign-Urbana, Chicago, DeKalb and Galesburg IL, Fargo-Moorhead, Kansas City, Lawrence KS, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha and many cities throughout the state of Iowa. Special tours have been conducted to Colorado & Utah, New York City, Washington DC and the Pacific NW. During tours the choir has been featured in many festivals including: the Northern Plains Kodaly Festival in Fargo, Joy of Singing Festival at the University of Kansas with Simon Carrington, and Sing a Mile High Children's Choral Festival in Denver with David Brunner. In June 1998, the choir was the only American ensemble to perform in the Mezinarodni Folklorni Festival in Frydek-Mistek, the Czech Republic. In 2001, the choir performed in "The World of Children's Choirs" festival in Vancouver BC, Canada, and was selected to perform at one of the concerts recorded by the CBC.

The ACC program sponsors the Midwest Children's Choir Festival (MCCF), which was created to provide the opportunity for select young singers in Iowa to hear and perform with nationally and internationally recognized choirs and performers. Early festivals featured choirs from Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the U.S. Currently, the festival features two Midwest children's choirs and includes select singers from Iowa, who form a 400-voice mass choir. Simon Estes has performed with the MCCF Mass Choir three times. The 2007 MCCF featured Bob Chilcott as composer and guest conductor, who Bob Chilcott conducted his new work "All things pass" commissioned by ACC and written for the festival. The 2009 MCCF will feature Rene Clausen as composer and guest conductor. The Concert Choir is the host of MCCF.

ACC created the Celebrate Singing Choral Festival (CSCF) in 2008. This new festival provides the opportunity for school and community choirs to hear and perform with each other. The Chorale who conducts annual tours to schools in central Iowa and has participated in children's choir festivals in Des Moines and Carroll, Iowa, is the host of CSCF.

All choirs in the ACC program have collaborated with many arts organizations in central Iowa including: Ames Chamber Artists, Ames Children's Theater, Central Iowa Symphony and the ISU Opera Theater.