Performance: Partnership with Emmanuel Music!

Guest Writer: Kasey Fahy. Premier Choir

On October 14, 2007 the Boston Children’s chorus had the privilege to sing with Emanuel music at Emmanuel church. This was the second year we were invited to sing a Bach cantata with the choir and it was even better than the first year. Singing with the professional choir at Emmanuel was both fun and rewarding. We were able to learn from the choir as we hope they were able to learn from us. When we were not singing we were able to listen to the enthralling solos and duets by some of Emmanuel music’s finest singers. The gracious members of the church were warm and inviting and a neighborhood choir even made cookies for us, when they found out we would be performing this weekend! The small orchestra we sang with was exquisite, and even with the tight quarters on stage they were extremely professional. Before we sang the cantata the Boston Children’s Chorus sang Lift Thine Eyes to the members of the church. Even with only a small number of Sopranos the song went well. We sang with heart and hopefully our singing warmed the chilly church. After we sang Lift Thine Eyes we walked out to a fabulous solo of In Paradisum by Miriam. This concert was both exciting and enchanting and hopefully we will be invited back to sing for many more years!

Performance: Superintendant Welcome!

Guest Writer: Mia Ferguson

On September the 25th, the premier choir joined with various organizations throughout Boston to welcome our new superintendent of the Boston Public Schools, Dr. Carol R. Johnson. After one rehearsal only, music filled the chapel of Trinity Church in Copley Square. All three performing groups, the Boston Community Choir, the Trinity Choir, and our very own Premier Choir of the Boston Children’s Chorus, performed with passion and energy individually, but when the groups joined in song together, a true unity and power encompassed the room. Not only was this event musically rewarding for us, after all we did learn a new song from Dr. Carol Johnson, it was an opportunity to experience many of our fellow students in our city. Speakers of all ages took the podium, including the Central Treble Choir’s young singer Christina Yee. In spite of her young age, Christina gave an incredible speech that was certainly memorable and exceptionally well delivered and written. Her words echoed throughout the night as the importance of education in both academics and the arts was emphasized. Another benefit of the evening was to see the red jackets of the City Year corps members filling the pews of the chapel. Their spirit and pride definitely fired up our passion and motivation to sing and spread the word about music. We now all have a confidence that Dr. Carol R. Johnson shares our commitment to music and musical education, and know that we’ll have many more brilliant students from the Boston Public School system heading our way to join us in our choirs.

September 2007: BCC Open House

Guest Writers: Mia Ferguson and Alexis Tice-Alarcon

As BCC’s new space was revealed to the public on September 10th, 2007, the hallways were filled with people bustling about. It was quite the novelty for BCC singers and guests alike to explore the unique new space. Designed by Bob Adams, the space radiates a feeling of community, where two rehearsals can occur at once. Not only rehearsals occur in this new space though, the staff’s offices are all there, as is a waiting area for parents and students, in addition to a kitchen! And although these things all occur in one space, the magnificent rehearsal rooms are all soundproofed as to not bother other activities. Not only did we discover that the space was soundproof, but also that in the Margaret Stewart Lindsey rehearsal hall there are microphones for proper recording, and a screen for watching a variety of performances and choirs. Various Premier Choir members toured visitors around the new space, pointing out all it had to offer. As the evening moved into the rehearsal hall the singing began. After a brief performance of “In Paradisum” and “Can You Hear?” the program moved on to thank all those that supported the choir and the new space. One of our longstanding supporters, the Margaret Stewart Lindsey Foundation, collaborated with the Boston Children’s Chorus to create our rehearsal hall. In honor of Margaret Stewart Lindsey, a woman who loved music and singing, a beautiful photograph of her as a young woman was revealed on the wall. It will remain there everyday to remind us of the woman whose legacy has given our choir so much. The Open House continued with refreshments for all in the other smaller rehearsal space. As people began to pour out of the space down the stairs to Shawmut Avenue, chorus members were revived and excited to get back to rehearsals in the astounding new space.

September 2007: Premier Retreat!

Guest Writer: Cyrus Dahmubed Premier Choir

This season Mr. TK decided that premier choir will have one over night retreat at the beginning of the season, instead of multiple 9-5 retreats throughout the season. The plan was for everyone to arrive at BCC Central at 7:30 on the morning of Saturday, September 8th. I instantly knew this was going to be a problem. All singers were asked to arrive at 7:30 so that the bus could leave at 7:45. At 7:30 about 10 singers had arrived, at 7:45 about half the singers had arrived. At about 8:00 the staff decided that we should start loading the school bus that was to take us to Kensington, NH where the retreat was to be held at the Kensington Pinnacle Leadership Center. So slowly but surely the group of partially awake singers began to load the bus with all of their luggage which, ranged in size from something not much larger than a purse that a woman might carry to a very elegant party all the way up to a suitcase in which one might fit two to three 5 year old children. After about 25 minutes of loading the bus all the singers that were to come on the retreat had arrived. Ten minutes later the bus departed, loaded to the point where Mr. TK had to jump over 10 feet of suitcases in order to pass the mid-point of the bus. The bus then took a wrong turn. After making a complete circle and ending up back at BCC Central the mumblings in the bus sounded something along the lines of “If we had left on time, we would have been there 5 minutes ago”. But soon everyone’s discomforts were allayed as sugar coated doughnuts and every imaginable flavor of bagel and cream cheese were passed through the bus.

Alas, our destination was finally reached. By the time we reached the center it was nearly 10:00, and the singers were told to take all our belongings to the rehearsal room and to take our seats so that the season could be officially opened. This was done and we began to be placed in our correct seats and to find out what voice part (e.g. Alto 1, Second Soprano etc…) we would be singing this year. There were many happy and a number of rather distraught looking faces when we finally did get to the actual singing. After quite a bit of surprisingly good singing (judging by the faces and exclamations of the staff), a bit of laughing, an ice breaker game and only one or two anecdotal speeches by Mr. TK, lunch was served. During lunch there were copious amounts of bonding, catching up, friendship making and yes, even a little bit of eating. Just before lunch Mr. TK had announced that this year in Premier Choir there would be a choir president, section leaders and music library assistants. The section leaders and library assistants would be selected by Mr. TK, but the president would be nominated and voted for by the singers. So during lunch there was a constant trickle of singers lining up to write down the name of their nominee.

After lunch we all returned to the rehearsal space to continue rehearsing. We rehearsed for about two hours after which Mr. TK announced that the upcoming break was our last chance to nominate singers for the choir presidency. So we had our break and a few more names appeared on the list. When we returned from our break we sang a bit more and Mr. TK told us that it was voting time. He read off the names of all the people who had been nominated and handed everyone a small piece of paper on which to write the name of the person they were voting for. While the votes were being tallied by Ms. Dominguez, Mr. TK informed the choir as to whom he had chosen for section leaders. The list was as follows: Laura Potter to lead the 1st sopranos, Georgia Halliday to lead the 2nd sopranos, Isabel Koyama to lead the 1st altos and Terrell James to lead the 2nd altos. Following a surprisingly short period of applause at the announcement of the last name mentioned, Ms. Dominguez asked to speak with Mr. TK about some problematic affair that had apparently arisen with the presidential ballots (we must have a lot of ex-Floridians in Premier Choir). Mr. TK then retook his place at the conductors stool and with a somewhat solemn air began to explain that it had been a very close election and that this year there would be a president and vice-president, due to the near tie. He said that the vice-presidency would be held by Mia Ferguson (this was followed by one of the largest ranges of emotions that may have ever been displayed by a crowd of Premier Choir size) and that the presidency would be held by Sherylynn Sealy. The applause following this proclamation was uproarious and unanimous. Mr. TK never mentioned who would be the library assistants.

The afternoon continued with rehearsal, a break, some more rehearsal and to begin the evening, dinner was served. The activities during dinner were much the same as those that took place during lunch. When we returned to rehearsal Ms. Dominguez took the altos upstairs for a little bit of extra work on the song “Can You Hear”. Mean while, Mr. TK did voice matching among the 1st and 2nd sopranos, a rather tedious – and for new singers, nerve racking – experience. Once all each 1st soprano had been paired with all a 2nd soprano, based on the way they sounded with each other, the altos were brought back in so that each alto could be matched with one of the already existing pairs. Since this activity usually only involves 3-4 singers at a time, the other singers were resigned to reading, doing homework, whispering inappropriately and staring aimlessly at random items in the room. Once all the trios (and sometimes, quartets) were formed we continued to rehearse. And thus the first day of rehearsing concluded.

Once we were dismissed from rehearsal we were informed as to who would be sleeping where. All of the boys were to sleep in the incredibly luxurious cabin, with a kitchen, running water, electricity and multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. Amenities the other cabins did not appear to share. As the center did not have enough beds for all the singers and staff to remain on campus, about 20 singers and 2 or 3 staff members were sent to spend the night in a hotel about ten minutes away from the center. After the group for the hotel had left, the boys had gone to their cabin (which was right across the dirt road from the rehearsal space), and one group of girls had walked the half-mile to their cabin only one group of girls was to be transported by van to their cabin approximately 1 mile away from the rehearsal space. This walk would not have been enjoyable in the dark, through the woods, with luggage, being eaten alive by mosquitoes and heaven only knows what other creatures that could be lurking in the dark woods of New Hampshire. Once everybody had been safely transported to their assigned sleeping quarters, the night went off without a hitch, or so I have been told.

The next morning all singers reported back to the rehearsal space with their luggage for breakfast. Breakfast was followed by rehearsal, a few more somewhat tangential speeches by Mr. TK – including one particularly random one about rain and the kinds of animals he has become accustomed to seeing in his backyard – and lunch. Lunch was followed by the same things as breakfast, except, of course, lunch. Around 3:30 we were informed that we should gather our belongings and begin to load the bus for departure. After the rehearsal space had been cleared of such obstructions as chairs, pianos and music stand a few of the singers decided that it needed a vacuuming. Once this was completed everyone was back on the bus and in just over an hour we were all back at BCC Central and greeted by our families.

All in all, the retreat was full of music learning, singer to singer bonding, singer to staff bonding, and (more so for the staff than the singers) stress. But from what I have heard the retreat could not have been a better way to start BCC’s 5th season, and the things learned and achieved on the retreat were truly in the spirit of BCC and helped to mold the newest (and some of the oldest) Ambassadors of Boston.

And thus is the story of the Premier Choir 2007 Retreat.

BCC 07-08: Parent Meeting

Guest Writer: Ken Accardi (BCC Parent)

On September 15th, all of the parents of BCC gathered together to start off the season with a Parent Meeting. This is the fifth year of the Boston Children's Chorus and things have really changed. Around four years ago this time the parents of the original 20 chorus members met in a similar way, but on a smaller scale. However, now there are 300 kids in the BCC it was amazing to see what a crowd assembled to kick off the year. The meeting was held in the cafeteria of Roxbury Community College and ended up being a standing room only event. This year there's not just one chorus like the pioneering choir of 2003, but instead there are nine, including four neighborhood choruses (Villa Victoria, West End House, Dorchester House I and Dorchester House II) and five that meet at BCC Central (Treble, Lyric, Concert, Young Men's Voice Class, and Premier). I knew the first time I met Hubie Jones that the man dreamed big dreams and made things happen, but this is amazing everyone. With the unity and diversity in the room, there can be no question that this chorus family will maximize the power of music to create social change.

Annette Rubin kicked off the meeting with a great welcome and review of the growth described above, and she introduced the staff, including now two program coordinators, an assistant artistic director, a business manager, two marketing managers, three teaching fellows, and three accompanists - wow! Her last introduction was Anthony Trecek-King who spoke with passion on so many subjects. First it came through clearly how much Mr T-K loves the kids and how he now feels at home within the chorus. But then he spoke about the mission for this year and how we're just beginning to tap the potential of the chorus. He is committed to pushing the kids hard to do the best they can do, and among other things he spoke about how he wants our kids to be ambassadors of music in their schools. In fact, he said that he wants schools throughout greater Boston to see kids in their BCC shirts and know that they are role models, great students, and great community members, in addition to being great singers. Next was the always hilarious David Howse. David spoke about all aspects of operations, communications, and logistics of the chorus. Most notably he spoke about the demand for our choirs to perform and shared that sometimes he gets five requests in a single day. The final speakers were two lovely mothers from parents organization who encouraged all parents to realize the importance of participation in the chorus family.

At the commence of the Parent Meeting, everyone (parents and choristers!) were invited to engage in a make-your-own sundae buffet, which was greatly enjoyed by all.

We're off to a great start of a great year!