Nashville Children’s Choir Relocates, Adds First Adult Choir and Keeps Belmont Roots Close

Nearly four decades after Belmont helped build the beloved Nashville program, the organization's next chapter still runs through the University's alumni network

For 37 years, generations of young singers arrived on Belmont's campus each week to rehearse with the Nashville Children's Choir. They performed in Belmont venues, learned alongside Belmont faculty, joined performances of “Christmas at Belmont” and inspired Belmont music education students preparing for careers of their own. 

This fall, the organization enters a new chapter. 

Now operating as the Nashville Choral Institute (NCI), the program is relocating off campus, launching its first-ever adult choir and expanding its mission. But nearly four decades after Belmont became home to the choir, the University's influence remains woven throughout the organization. 

For current NCI Director and double Belmont alumnus Tyler Merideth, the decision to move was not an easy one. "I've lost so much sleep over this," he admitted. "Change is scary and it's hard to do. But I felt like this was the right decision for where we are going next." 

A Nashville legacy with Belmont roots 

Over the years, thousands of young singers from across Middle Tennessee passed through the program, which earned a reputation for artistic excellence while bringing together students from dozens of communities across the region.  

Much of that legacy traces back to Dr. Madeline Bridges, professor emerita and former associate dean of Belmont's College of Music and Performing Arts, who taught at Belmont from 1998 to 2020. As longtime program director, Bridges built the organization into a 250-voice choir and became a fixture of Nashville's music education community. She's since been inducted into the Tennessee Music Educators Hall of Fame and, this year, recognized in Belmont's inaugural "Alumni by Choice" class. 

Merideth watched Bridges build that legacy up close, and his own history with Belmont goes back even further than his years working alongside her. He earned two degrees from Belmont, a bachelor's in church music in 2003 and a master's in music education in 2006, before returning to the organization in 2007 as pianist for the Nashville Youth Choir, the program's high school division, working under director Robert King for seven years. 

Merideth stepped away for several years to raise his own three children, then returned about four years ago to take over as program director and guide the choir's rebuild after the pandemic. Working with CMPA Dean Stephen Eaves, he began exploring what the organization's next chapter could look like. The logistics eventually pointed to one answer: it made more sense to move rehearsals to a space built for the program's needs than to keep competing for room that Belmont's growing student body needed too. 

Merideth’s Belmont origin story 

Merideth's own path to Belmont started at a college fair at Butler University, where a recruiter at the last booth before the exit pulled him aside as he was walking out. Merideth, an Indiana native set on studying music business, made the five-hour drive south to check the school out and ended up finding an entirely different calling. One of his Belmont mentors, Mark Ackler, gave him the chance to direct a church youth choir before he'd had any formal training, which sent him back to Belmont for a master's degree to learn the tools to match the sound he heard in his head.  

"That was a huge thing that Belmont provided," he said. 

That path is part of why Merideth is so invested in the next generation of Belmont music educators coming through NCI's doors and in expanding who gets access to the organization at all.  

By day, he teaches choir at James Lawson High School in Metro Nashville Public Schools, and that work shapes his vision for NCI's future: turning the Institute into a resource for kids who want to sing but don't have the means, whether that's covering costs or opening up performance and travel opportunities that can change how a student sees the world. 

A new name, a bigger mission 

Today, NCI includes four sequenced choirs for choristers in grades 2 through 12: Prelude Choir, Concert Choir, Vox Nova and the Nashville Youth Choir. When those choirs combine to perform in the community, they still take the stage as the Nashville Children's Choir, the name generations of Nashville families know best. 

This fall, Merideth is introducing the piece that completes the picture: a community choir for adults, the Nashville Chorale, as he works to open the organization's mission to singers of every age. Designed for parents, young professionals, empty nesters and any others looking for connection through music, the Nashville Chorale expands the organization’s reach beyond children for the first time. Some of its first members are former Nashville Children's Choir kids, now grown, coming back to sing in the organization that raised and shaped them. 

Even off campus, Belmont's influence remains embedded throughout NCI. Five staff members hold a combined seven Belmont degrees, while additional alumni serve as board members, advisors and professional partners, creating a network of Belmont graduates that extends throughout nearly every level of the organization. One choir director, James Wells, studied alongside Merideth in Belmont's master's program; another, Tim Powell, once sat beside him in the viola section of the Belmont Orchestra. Alumnae Samantha Altmann and Mary Countress serve as the media and mentorship director in charge of the Belmont Volunteers and one of NCI's collaborative pianists, respectively. The shared experiences and relationships formed on campus continue to shape the organization's leadership today. 

The connection extends to NCI's new rehearsal home, too. The choirs are now in residence at Immanuel Baptist Church, a congregation many Belmont faculty attend. And the partnership with Belmont's campus isn't ending: the University has offered McAfee Concert Hall for NCI's annual winter concert, and NCI remains a neighborhood partner with Belmont's Music Education program, continuing to welcome Belmont students as volunteers who gain classroom and ensemble experience before they student teach.  

"You make a lot of mistakes before you go out and student teach," Merideth explained, "so then you can really make the mistakes and learn how to be a teacher." 

While the organization's structure and location may be changing, Merideth believes its core purpose remains exactly the same: giving its members something that’s hard to find almost anywhere else. 

The magic of singing together 

In a world where people are glued to their phones, he said, it's easy to feel isolated, always comparing, always aware someone might be watching. Choir asks something different: show up once a week, put the device down and work toward something with other people.  

"There's something special to singing together," he said, pointing to an old saying that those who sing together cannot be enemies as long as the music lasts. He believes that kind of shared purpose is something communities need more of, not less, right now. 

He didn't grow up able to match pitch himself, and when he finally experienced singing in tune with others, it was a very powerful moment.  

"There's this really special magic that happens when everyone is singing the right notes at the right time, the right way," he said. "I highly recommend joining a choir. If it's not NCI, it's something else. Somewhere you get to hear and experience that sense of harmony." 

The address may be different this fall, but the mission remains familiar. Nearly four decades after Belmont first opened its doors to the Nashville Children's Choir, the students, faculty and alumni who helped shape the organization continue to influence where it goes next.  

Recent photos by Ella Shafer.