What do we mean when was ask a youth choir for a more mature sound?
The risk is that we mean for our singers to assume the tone and timbre of older singers. Sixteen-year-olds sounding like forty-year-olds, for example. And I have certainly heard high school choirs where the singers are clearly doing weird things to sound older than they are.
It’s risky because the tone is probably a put-on for most young singers (there’s the rare exception) and might cause lasting damage due to wonky technique. If, like me, you care deeply about your singers having voices for a lifetime, then it’s essential to prioritize appropriate technique.
But that’s not what I think most choir directors mean when they ask for more mature sound. I think what they’re asking for is more musical maturity. More lyrical maturity. More interpretational, intonational, and interpersonal maturity.
In essence: we are asking our singers to behave in a more sophisticated way than they are expected for their age.
Indeed, I think more sophisticated might be a better phrase than more mature.