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May 7, 2008 8:09 pm US/Pacific
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Teaching Angels to Sing
Jefferson Award Winner: Annabelle Marie
BENICIA (CBS 5) ―
Upcoming performances:
May 17 & 18 at Copia in Napa. Tickets: $25. Call 707-259-1600 or 888-512-6742.
May 23 at Vacaville Performing Arts Theater. Tickets: $30 (adults) $25 (seniors & children) Call 707-449-6217
On any Tuesday afternoon, angelic sounds waft from the windows of Benicia's St. Dominic's church. It is the sound of Voena, an acronym for "Voices of Eve 'N Angels," a singing group founded by Annabelle Marie in 1994.
Voena began because Annabelle couldn't find the kind of singing group she dreamed of for her three sons. She wanted them to sing because she was a singer.
"I had aspirations of being a diva, but I didn't like it," she says with a laugh. "Once I gave birth to my children, I had this unbelievable passion for wanting to give back everything that I have learned to children."
One of the things that makes Voena so unique is that Annabelle requires no auditions.
She says, "I don't believe in the children auditioning because I want them to know that if they have a desire, anything they have desire in life for, that all they have to do is put themselves out there."
Excellence is what she teaches and Annabelle accepts nothing less from her five to eighteen-year-olds, even when they're singing in a foreign language.
Chloe Cullen is only five years old.
"She teaches us a lot of stuff about singing," Chloe says of Annabelle.
Chloe and the other Voena children sing songs in languages as diverse as Gaelic, Chinese, Romanian, and Swahili.
"The beauty of what's happened is these kids and their families have learned how to celebrate diversity instead of tolerate it," Annabelle says. "For me, the diversity is exciting."
Exposure to diverse cultures is one of the benefits for 14-year-old Kenya Wright. She's been with the group since she was five. She and her mother have traveled with
Voena all over the world, twice to the White House.
"It gives them a sense of confidence," says Kenya's mom, Linda Wright. "I also think that their grades improve in school because that's what music does to their brains."
For teaching children to strive for excellence and to find harmony in diversity through music, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Annabelle Marie.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)