The Texas Girls' Choir is a nonprofit organization based in North Texas. About 100 girls, between ages 8 and 12, perform in the choir.
The Texas Girls' Choir is made up of around 100 girls between the ages of 8 and 12 from the North Texas region. [1] Rehearsals are held twice a week and the choir performs choreographed works, foreign-language songs and other programs. [1] [2]
The organization was founded in 1962 by Shirley Carter in Fort Worth, Texas. [3] There had been many boys' choirs in the region, but no girls' choirs during the 1960s. [4] The choir was fully integrated, during the time when segregation was legal, and included African-American girls from the beginning. [4] The choir was first called the City Girls' Choir, and was incorporated in 1965 as the Texas Girls' Choir. [3] It was the first girl's choir in the United States to be incorporated. [5] The choir first performed in the Fort Worth downtown YWCA and later at the First Baptist Church. [4] The group found a permanent home in 1973. [4]
The choir has performed in over 46 countries. [6] In 1970, the choir was invited to perform in Tel Aviv in the Tel Aviv Youth Center and also sang at the Mount of Beatitudes. [7]
After Carter died, one of the original members of the first choir group, Debi Weir, took over as executive director in 2002. [5] Weir had been working as the administrative assistant since 1980. [5] Weir died in 2015. [8]