On Voices High: Northern Kentucky Choral Group Brings Community Voices Together

By Bill Furbee, FTL Contributor

In Northern Kentucky, nearly 200 individuals from the ages of 8 to 80 come together every week, celebrating community with song. They do so as members of choral organization Viva Voices.

“I think there is something powerful about music,” says Viva Voices President and Artistic Director, Tony Burdette. “There’s something … spiritual about it. It creates an amazing experience, and it also creates an amazing community.”

Burdette performed with the Cincinnati Opera for 20 years, and was committed to enabling others to enjoy the stage as well. “I’ve always had a passion for being able to create high-quality musical experiences for folks that may not be professional musicians themselves,” he says.

With that in mind, Burdette founded his first community choir in 2011, in association with a Northern Kentucky church. Choir membership grew and soon reached capacity, but Burdette dreamed of leading a larger organization.

“I saw a need … for something that’s very high quality and very affordable and accessible,” he says. “We wanted to create something unique — not just like an adult community choir, not just a children’s choir, but an organization that encompasses arts, music education, and choral music education for people of all ages.”

While most members reside in Northern Kentucky, he says, some routinely travel from as far away as Dayton, Ohio; Lawrenceburg, Indiana; and Augusta, Kentucky, to participate.

Viva Voices, a nondenominational 501(c)(3) organization, supports itself with low member tuition, grants, corporate donations, and individual donations.

In just four short years, Viva Voices has already accomplished much to sing about; in July, it was the only Tri-State choir invited to sing at the International Choral Festival, in France. Looking ahead to 2026, the group has been invited to have its members perform in Germany and Austria.

Audiences have been growing as well, with over a thousand attending one recent Veterans Day concert.

“One of the things I love about what we do is, we have people from all walks of life, probably with different beliefs,” Burdette says. “They probably vote for different people, all these things, but we come together with a common goal in mind. And there’s this sense of unity and this sense that we believe in the power of music to bring beauty and joy into our world because our world needs it.”

Viva Voices’ spring season begins February 18, and interested parties can register online at the choral organization’s website.

To learn more, visit www.VivaVoices.net.

High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass

Mark your calendars now: “An Appalachian Spring,” a concert that features music based on, and inspired by, Appalachia, takes place on April 26.

For the concert, Viva Voices will partner with the Christian Appalachian Project, a Lexington-based non-denominational multi-faith organization.

Central to the concert will be a work called “Come Away to the Skies, a High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass.” Burdette describes the piece as “very choral, but set to be accompanied by a Bluegrass band.” Tim Sharp, one of the piece’s co-composers, is a past president of the American Choral Directors Association, and will be in residence with Viva Voices for the concert, a banjo slung over his shoulder while he leads the band.

“An Appalachian Spring” will take place on Saturday, April 26, at 4:00 p.m. at First Baptist Church in Cold Spring.