Before dawn on Inauguration Day, a military vehicle will leave the Pentagon. Its mission: escort a busload of California schoolgirls deep into the nation’s capital.

Who are these special young ladies? They’re members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, who together with the San Francisco Boys Chorus, are the only charitable ensembles performing during the inauguration ceremony. The choruses, invited in November, will jointly perform a 20-minute medley of patriotic songs.

“We have friends in high places,” says Melanie Smith, executive director of the girls chorus, of their opportunity to sing-in the new president. (The chief “friend” would be Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who chaired the committee arranging the ceremonies.)

The Girls Chorus, whose members range in age from 9 to 17, has raised 70 percent of the $70,000 the trip will cost. The boys ensemble,…

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