What We're Up To: Season Finale Concert

By: Maddie Mechem, Concert Choir

Maddie has been in BCC for 4 years. She is 15 years old.

   On May 22nd, BCC performed its last concert of the season. This is the concert where everyone shows off what they learned during the year, and says goodbye to the departing seniors, which is like saying goodbye to family. In Concert Choir, we had to say goodbye to Vanessa Zamy, who will attend Stanford, and Amanda Yee, who is going to UMASS Lowell.

Members of CU

   There is always a lot to do before the final concert, since we have to look and sound our best. In years past, we have based the concert on a theme, like musicals (2008-09) or movies (2009-10), but this year, we had no theme, just a lot of great music.

   Concert Choir and Choral Union started off the concert with The Storm is Passing Over, a gospel piece that was really fun to sing despite the difficulties of clapping and singing at the same time. CU then performed Windy Nights and Ojos Azules, the latter of which was extremely pretty, and done a capella.

 We followed up with We Will, Rise Up My Love (which is a text from the Song of Solomon, and was also done a capella), and This is the Day, in which Olayeni and Oladunni Oladipo did a fantastic solo. After this, CC went up to the balcony to watch the rest of the show.

Training choirs with Ms. I

    The Training Choirs followed us. They sang Siyahamba, O Desayo, and Ching a Ring Chaw (and Great Gittin’ Up Mornin’), and they did a great job on all three. Then came the Intermediate Choirs, who sang Ma Navu (Hebrew text), How Can I Keep From Singing? (American folk hymn), and Everlasting Melody, all of which were performed very well, especially Ma Navu, which was intense, but pretty at the same time.
 
    After Everlasting Melody, all the choirs sang together for A Place In This World, a very pretty piece written by BCC’s Composer-in-Residence, Bill Banfield. I love this song, because it has a really sweet message, that “everyone has a place in the world.”

Ella plays cuatro during
La Paloma

After this piece, YME took the stage for Despertar (“to wake up”), a fantastic song about someone who sees the sun rise, and is amazed by everything around him. Then PC came on and performed La Paloma (“the dove”), which is a pretty and attention-grabbing piece, with Ella Williams on the cuatro, which looks like a ukulele, but sounds more like a guitar. Both pieces had originally been performed at the April 9th concert with Maria Guinand. After La Paloma, PC and YME sang Alleluia, which was another pretty song, and Mr. T-K acknowledged the graduating seniors and their families. PC began to sing If I had a Dream, which was performed at the MLK concert with Kyle and Christopher Massey. They sang it for about 30 seconds, then stopped to laughter and applause, and everyone was smiling. PC and YME then sang another piece from the April 9th concert, Salseo, which seems like a fun piece to sing, and sounds great.

    As the finale, CC, who had been waiting patiently for about half an hour, came up on stage. PC and YME were behind us on the risers, and everyone else was in front of us. CC was going to be the call for Sahayta, a multi-lingual call-and-response song, which we had been performing for around two months. For this concert we had several people, me included, who volunteered to go up to a microphone, and give the definition of one of the words from the song. The words varied in difficulty from “Peace and Joy” (spoken by Nancy Chomitz) to “!Uba !Uoba” (Alexander Lee-Papastavros). The reason this last word was the most difficult is because the “!” is a tongue click. My word was “Shalom,” meaning “peace.” This song contained words in Swahili (washirika), Amharic (ngoyila), Arabic (salaam, selam), Filipino (bayanihan, aawitankita, halo halo), Damara (!uba!uoba), Hebrew (shalom), English (peace and joy), Hindi (ektaa), Sanskrit (sahayta), and Spanish (unidad), as well as a two-part clapping pattern. This piece was fun to do, and we must have carried it off pretty well, since we got a standing ovation for it.

Final Song of the Season!

This was a great concert, and although I wish it was not the last, it was fun to have been a part of it!

What We're Up To: Getting National Recognition!

We are proud to share some joyful and exciting news with you – just last week, BCC received a national award from Chorus America, and has been selected as a Finalist for the nation’s highest award for out-of-school youth arts and humanities programs!

First, BCC has won the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from Chorus America! The award is presented annually, but youth choruses are only eligible every three years. The winner demonstrates artistic excellence, a strong organizational structure, and a commitment to outreach, education, and/or culturally diverse activities. We are so honored! Founder Hubie Jones will accept the award in San Francisco in a few weeks – pictures to come!

And if that wasn’t enough, we also got word that we were selected as a Finalist for a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities! This selection recognizes BCC as one of the top arts and humanities-based programs in the country! We are one of 50 finalists nationally, and will know in June whether or not we are one of 15 winners. Here is a link to a YouTube video about the award.

A shout-out for both awards is due to the whole BCC community and staff, but especially to Jan Woiler Meuse, Foundation Relations and Marketing Manager, who does all the writing that shows the judges just how great we really are! Reach out and thank her, or leave a comment here!

BCC Fall Concert!

Guest Writer: Lydia Guterman, Concert Choir

We had the first all-choir concert of the year. It was spectacular! This year it was at Tremont Temple, and many new singers were introduced to performing on stage for the first time. Things were very crazy and hectic when all the singer arrived as expected, but if I must say, all choirs were absolutely wonderful! We kicked off the performance with Concert Choir singing, "Rain," "Fall," "Mocking of Youth," and "Circles of Motion." Two of these songs have been sung by the Premier choir in previous seasons, so it shows that Concert Choir is progressing along nicely. Next up we had the intermediate level choirs: Dorchester House II and Lyric. They sang a lovely set, one of my favorites being Bob Chilcott's "Like a Singing Bird". After their stunning performance we moved on to the training Choirs singing "Friendship Song" arranged by Doreen Rao, it was beautifully sung. Dorchester House I and Villa Victoria came next with their lovely voices. Finishing off we had Young Men's Ensemble and Premier Choir, BCC's most advanced choirs, singing gorgeous songs. Premier sang "Double Trouble" by John Williams, which tickled the souls of the Harry Potter fans in the audience. We closed with Premier Choir and Young Men's Ensemble singing "Keep Your Lamps" a moving spiritual. All nine choirs have really progressed a lot, especially in the last two years. Seeing and performing in this concert, and hearing about the great reviews from the concerts already put on this season, I have strong confidence that this 2008-09 season is going to be a great season for The Boston Children's Chorus!

BCC Benefit Concert!

Guest Writers: Madison Gordon and Jennifer Selvidge

Dreams Come True: a fitting title for a benefit concert for the Boston Children’s Chorus, because for some kids, BCC is just that. With the help of the Boston Children’s Chorus, singers that cannot afford the tuition are not barred from the chorus and these benefit concerts help to cover the cost. They are very important to us as without these concerts, some of our singers, who want so much to sing, wouldn’t have an opportunity to do so. And as with all concerts, we united as a group to pull our set together. Now it may sound like we, the BCC singers and staff did this concert alone, but this is most certainly not the case. We as a choir would like to thank Blue Cross Blue Shield, our lead corporate sponsor, as well as all of our other corporate sponsors. Additionally, we would like to thank the New England Conservatory for being our lead artistic partner. Last but certainly not least, who could forget the fabulous people at Concord Baptist Church, who lent us their space. And as usual we would like to thank Anthony Trecek-King, Michele Adams, and June Ambush, for their support of us and for pushing us to achieve.
We began the concert with the lovely voices of the training choirs. They sang Alleluia by W.A. Mozart and it was such a pleasure to listen to. We saw the future of the choir in these beautiful young voices, and let me tell you our future is looking bright! We then transitioned from our youngest chorus to the oldest as Premier Choir sang Lift Thine Eyes (Mendelssohn) from the balcony of the auditorium. This was spectacular because the overtones could really flourish from our unique and elevated location.
The next voices to sing were those of the intermediate choirs. They sang Winds by Larysa Kuzmenko followed by Hasivenu (arranged by Doreen Rao), an Israeli folk song. We especially enjoyed the latter song because it demonstrated even further how much diversity we have in BCC, not just in our singers but in our repertoire as well. The finale for the intermediate choirs was the cherished piece When I Close my Eyes by Jim Papoulis with our very own artistic director Anthony Trecek-King accompanying them on the cello. This song, soon to become a BCC classic, was strengthened by the wonderful blend of voices and strings.
The training choirs then sang Lets all Sing Together by Susie Davies conducted by Michele Adams, who always conducts with such energy and enthusiasm. Then all the choirs of BCC joined to sing Dona Nobis Pacem literally translated “Give Us Peace”. It was sung in a round, starting with the Training Choirs, followed by the Intermediate Choirs, and finishing with the Premier Chorus. Concert Choir then had its debut singing Ave Maria op. 19b by Antonin Dvorak, Let the River Run (arranged by Jay Althouse), and Thula S'Thandwa, a traditional Zulu lullaby arranged by Nick Page. Premier as a whole was greatly impressed by the growth apparent in Concert Choir, who has improved immensely since the beginning of the season. The training choirs then made their final solo performance singing Come Follow Me by John Hilton.
Finally it was time for Premier Chorus to take the stage, singing Lacrymosa by W.A. Mozart arranged by Robinson a beautiful and dynamically rich piece. Following Lacrymosa was Niska Banja, a flirtatious Serbian Gypsy dance song with soloists Georgia Halliday on soprano and Casey Accardi on alto. Finally, in honor of our Director of Operations & Programs, Mr. David Howse, Premier sang Can You Hear by Jim Papoulis.
As the evening came towards its finish, Young Men’s Voice Choir, BCC’s only all boys choir, sang Down in the Valley, a Kentucky folk song and Swing down Chariot arranged by Andre Thomas with fantastic solos from Grant Jones and Cautchy Bailey. YMVC really brought the crowd to their feet with this ending spiritual, and were most certainly a favorite of the evening.
Our final song was Siyahamba, from an arrangement by Henry Leck. All of our choirs sang together on it and the result was a masterpiece. Every voice was lifted in song, which is fitting, as the South African standard is a crying out for justice and freedom in South Africa. It is only with support from the people that a cry such as this could be heard. Siyahamba is an outcry from liberty, similarly BCC is effectively an outcry for social change. So this was a fitting end to our stellar concert. The children of BCC are ambassadors, sharing love in the form of song. This evening of song brought us together. Marvelous job to all those who performed, and to our audience members and readers of this blog, I hope you enjoyed our concert and will join us in trying to spread song. (Or maybe just at our next concert ☺)

BCC Fall Concert!

Fall Concert 2007

This year, for the first time ever, BCC held a fall concert for the general public. It was a enjoyable evening filled with excitment radiating from all of the BCC choirs, as well as from the warm and welcoming audience. In order to represent the real singer perspective, interviews have been conducted with members from various choirs within the BCC, telling of the fall concert experience from many point of views! Read on!

Laura Potter, age 15, represents Premier

What is your favorite aspect of being in BCC?
LP: This is my second year singing in the Boston Children's Chorus. The best part of being a member of the chorus is being around the most talented, encouraging, and inspired people, both staff and fellow singers, that I have ever met. In such a rigorous yet supportive environment, I have been able to grow as a musician and to make friends. The BCC community is singularly unique in this way; we adapt as a group to fit every singer's individual needs, and the product of our work is extraordinary.

BCC: Which selections did your choir perform at the Fall Concert?
LP: At this year's Fall Concert, the Premier Choir performed five pieces. We opened the program with "Lift Thine Eyes" from "Elijah" by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, followed by "Can You Hear" by Jim Papoulis. Then, we sang "In Paradisum", a Gregorian chant and "Eternity" by Michael Bojesen. We then walked out to "Mu ku ki La may", an African melody that we learned on our retreat to New Hampshire at the beginning of the season.

BCC: Were you nervous before the performance?
LP: No, I was not particularly nervous before the performance. There were a song or two in our selections that we, the PC, were concerned might not be as polished as we might have liked, but on the whole we were more excited than worried. I think everybody gets last minute jitters right before going on stage, but as soon as we start to sing everyone feels more comfortable and relaxed.

BCC: What was your favorite part of the performance?

LP: My favorite part of the performance was the effect of our semi-circle formation for the last selection, "Eternity". During the Gregorian chant of "In Paradisum", the PC split into three groups, and two of these groups processed out into the aisles of the audience, creating a long arc of singers, while the other group remained on stage. This piece is, as our conductor and Artistic Director Mr. Trecek-King described to the audience that evening, about reflection, thought, and finding comfort in something as solid and quiet as a stone from the beach. After singing the three verses at the beginning of the piece, the choir converges on one singular note, and slowly, one by one, small groups of singers begin to diverge from this note and sing hauntingly beautiful melodies, reaching a full and glorious climax before returning to that same note in unison at the end. Because the choir was spread throughout the audience as well as the stage, the effect was an enveloping, perpetually sustained, flowing sound that reached the audience from not one but three directions. Our performance of "Eternity" was, therefore, a success and my favorite piece that PC sang that night.

Laura Davis, age 17, gives us the Concert Choir perspective..

BCC: What is your favorite aspect of being in BCC?

LD: I have been in BCC since last year, and I love coming into Boston every week, and I have learned SO much about music, in fact way more than my violin teacher taught me when I took violin for four years.

BCC: Which selections did your choir perform at the Fall Concert?

LD: We sang "Feel Good" composed by L. Craig Tyson

BCC: Were you nervous before the performance?

LD: I wasn't nervous because I'm used to performing, but I was slightly nervous for my choir because sometimes we have trouble paying attention through the whole performance, but it came together quite nicely!

BCC: What was your favorite part of the performance?

LD: Well, I am not sure what the audience would say, but it was really fun to see my supportive friends taking snapshots from the front row as we sang!

Charlotte Del Col represents Villa Victoria

BCC: What is your favorite part of being in the BCC?

CDC: I have been in BCC for two years now, and I really like being with my friends from the choir.

BCC: What pieces did your choir sing at the Fall Concert?

CDC: Let's Sing Altogether, Thank you for the World So Sweet and Seagull.

BCC: Were you nervous before the performance?

CDC: Right before the performance I get a little nervous. Once we start to sing, I'm not nervous.

BCC: What was your favorite moment of the Fall Concert?

CDC:When everyone claps I feel proud. I also like when we take our bows.