The mission of Soar Youth and Adult Choir
is to create inter generational community
​and musical excellence for youth with diverse needs.
Fall 2022 Update - We are conducting in-person rehearsal each week.
For more information or to join us, please contact us!

Why Music Matters

If you've ever quoted song lyrics, you know that music can be a tool to communicate how you're feeling. You might also know from personal experience that music can be a mood-booster, can uplift, and can help you through hard times.
But if you're looking for more evidence-based data, there are numerous scientific studies, including this one, that demonstrate positive impacts of music, particularly in youth and adolescence. Here are just some of the findings...
  • Each year of arts study was significantly associated with a reduction in the likelihood that an adolescent would ever be suspended out-of-school.
  • As adolescents, students of the arts are significantly more optimistic about their chances to attend college than non-arts students.
  • Adolescents enrolled in music were less likely to consume alcohol “more than two or three times” during adolescence. No other area of arts study was significantly associated with alcohol use during adolescence.
  • As adolescents, Music students were less likely to use marijuana.
  • Emerging adults who studied music scored higher on a standardized test of vocabulary.
  • Former students of music were significantly more optimistic as adults.
  • Former arts students were significantly less likely to be involved with the criminal justice system. Adults who had taken arts coursework were 26% less likely to have ever been arrested. Each additional year of arts was associated with a 9% reduction in the risk of being arrested.

Taken altogether, the results of this study suggest that arts students experience positive developmental benefits from their arts study through adolescence and into adulthood.