Premier Choir performance with the Cantata Singers!

Premier Choir performed with the Cantata Singers at Jordan Hall on May 8th. For background information, check out this post! Below is a video of Anthony Trecek-King conducting BCC and the Cantata Singers Ensemble in Benjamin Britten's "Psalm 150".

CC Tours to Connecticut!

BCC's Concert Choir (CC) toured to Connecticut May 2nd and 3rd. To catch up with the group, BCC blogger, Casey Accardi, conducted a Q&A session with them following their trip.

Blog: So I understand you had to leave pretty early in the morning for tour?
CC: Yeah we had to be at BCC central by 7:15 am which was not easy! We almost had to leave without Clare but she just made it in time. Needless to say, our bus ride to Connecticut was pretty quiet because we were still sleepy. But Francesca made cookies which was a nice morning treat! Mr. Tk has a strict no singing on the bus rule although there was some mysterious singing coming from the back of the bus...

Blog: Well as long as Mr. Tk doesn't hear it, it's okay! Where did you arrive in Connecticut?
CC: After two hours of relaxing on the bus, we reached the Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut. The school was really nice! It felt more like a miniature college campus than a school. The chorus students were really welcoming. We started off by playing an ice-breaker game with them which was fun and then settled into rehearsal.

Blog: What did you rehearse?
CC: We sang about 12 songs from our own repertoire and then did a number of combined pieces with the Kingswood-Oxford singers. One favorite was "We Are Together", a song originally sung by the Agape Children's Choir, thats really enjoyable and powerful to sing. During the rehearsal, we mostly practiced the combined pieces so that all singers could be on the same page. At one point, Francesca had a clumsy moment and fell off the risers -- she was totally fine, it was pretty funny!

Blog: Sounds great! I hope you guys stopped to have lunch...?
CC: Oh yes don't worry, we did! They had a great cafeteria at Kingswood-Oxford. We had a nice selection of burritos, cookies, and chips to eat. During lunch, we got to sit with the K-O singers and get to know them which was awesome. They told us that in early April, they went on tour to Chicago and got to work with our friends the Chicago Children's Choir -- small world, isn't it?!

Blog: Small world indeed! So how was the actual concert?
CC: The concert with the K-O singers was great! They're a really good choir, it was awesome to exchange songs with them. The performance space was large but felt cozy -- it was ideal. The audience was sizeable and quite enthusiastic. Its safe to say fun was had by all. It was one of our best concerts of the year.

Blog: Super! How were your homestays?
Homestays were so much fun! We were intentionally partnered with people from CC that we didn't know very well, which was excellent because we made great friends with each other. Additionally, we got to know K-O singers and their families more personally -- everyone was so nice! We really appreciated them for welcoming us into their homes.

Blog: How lovely! How was your sunday?
Sunday was an action packed day! We got up bright and early and had farewell breakfast with our host families. Then we headed to Center Church Hartford to perform at their 9:00 am service. They have a great music ministry there, it was wonderful working with them. After the service, we grabbed lunch and then got back on the bus to go home. On the way, we watched Finding Nemo... such a great movie. Overall, our whirlwind tour of Connecticut was a fantastic experience!

Concert Choir Prepping for Tour!

This weekend, Concert Choir will be going on a whirlwind tour of Connecticut, performing twice over the course of the weekend. In their final rehearsal before tour, they rehearsed their repertoire and went over tour expectations and guidelines. Below is a video clip of CC practicing Bob Chilcott's "All Things Pass". Press HQ in the bottom right corner of the video for the best quality viewing. Check back soon for a blog entry about their weekend!

Classroom Cantatas - collaboration preview!

On May 8th, Premier Choir will be performing with the Cantata Singers at Jordan Hall. While the main piece that we're preparing is Britten's "Psalm 150", today we got the opportunity to work on another piece with the 4th grade class of Dorchester's Neighborhood House Charter School. These 4th graders are not your everyday 4th graders -- they're composers too! Through the Cantata Singer's program called Classroom Cantatas, NHCS' 4th graders worked with teaching artists and classroom teachers to compose the words and music of their own original cantatas. They created two cantatas, "The Caterpillar" and "Wrens and Robins" which we learned and sung with them this afternoon. It was an exciting exchange because NHCS taught us their songs, and in turn we taught them the basics of solfege and performed a few of our own pieces for them.



Above is a super short sneak preview of the song "Wrens and Robins"... come to the May 8th concert to see the whole thing as well as other awesome works!

From the Top Performance!

On March 29th, PC and YME had the pleasure of performing on From the Top! FTT is a non-profit organization that celebrates the passion, dedication and personal stories of the nation's outstanding young classical musicians.

Singers had a great time performing in Jordan Hall and getting to know the other performers on the show. From the Top posted photos from the concert, click here to check them out! They also posted a cool video of BCC singing "Bridge Over Troubled Water", accompanied by Clifton Williams, an awesome young pianist from Washington D.C.



From the Top's radio show featuring BCC will air on in Boston on WGBH 89.7 FM on Saturday, May 2 at 11am and Sunday, May 3 at 6pm. Click here to check your local listings.

Additionally, the broadcast is also available for listening now on the BCC page of From the Top's website.

Check out From the Top's blog! http://greenroom.fromthetop.org/