Libby youth choirs win first-place trophies in Coeur d'Alene

Two Libby choirs turned a Coeur d’Alene stage into a showcase for regional youth arts, and both left with first-place trophies. Lorraine Braun’s Libby Children’s Select Choir and Libby Honors Choir performed on May 16 at a national music competition in the city, where judges were so engaged they joined the choir during its performance of Dynamite.

The result was more than a feel-good win for families in Libby, Montana. It also underscored Coeur d’Alene’s role as a host city for traveling arts competitions, the kind that bring in school and community ensembles from outside Kootenai County and put local venues in front of a broader audience. One attendee said he had not seen a standing ovation like that in 10 years, a reaction that speaks to the scale of the performance and the atmosphere it created.

The competition was part of Music in the Parks, a national festival and adjudicated performance series that includes choirs, bands and orchestras. In that format, the trophies matter, but so does the city that can draw in young performers, their families and the judges who evaluate them. For Coeur d’Alene, that is part of a larger arts identity that reaches beyond summer recreation and civic events.

This was not the first time Braun’s singers had made the trip. A 2025 Libby report on the same Coeur d’Alene event described it as Music in the Parks Festival/Competition and said the choirs performed on Saturday, May 17, 2025. In that outing, the Libby Honors Choir earned an overall score of 95.25 and the Libby High School Women’s Choir received an overall score of 96, showing a pattern of high-level competition in North Idaho.

The choirs’ connection to Coeur d’Alene stretches back further still. In 2018, the Libby Children’s Select Choir raised about $4,300 at a dinner and auction to help pay for a trip to a competition in Coeur d’Alene, evidence that the city has long been part of the region’s youth music circuit.

That broader arts network matters locally because it helps define what kind of destination Coeur d’Alene has become. The Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra says its mission is to enrich lives through music, and its National Young Artist Competition adds another layer to the city’s youth-focused musical profile. The orchestra scheduled its 2026 young artist concert for March 14 at the Schuler Performing Arts Center on the North Idaho College campus, reinforcing that Kootenai County has become a place where young performers can compete, perform and be recognized.