Concert Choir performs at ACDA Big Sing!

On Tuesday, March 31st, Concert Choir performed at the American Choral Director's Association Children's Choir festival at St. Cecilia's Church in Boston. This performance was fun and unique because BCC was one of ten choirs performing, so the singers got to see other local groups sing and had the opportunity to learn from their performances. The festival was non-competititave and was adjudicated by David Hodgkins, artistic director of Coro Allegro. Concert Choir, the first group to perform, gave wondeful renditions of Bob Chilcott's "Circles of Motion" and Barbara Baker's "The Storm is Passing Over". St. Cecilia's church was an incredible space to perform in; the acoustics were amazing and the any seat in the house was a good seat.

Throughout the night, we heard from the All Together Now Family Chorus, the Peabody School Early Bird Singers, BU's Neshikot, The Boston City Singer's Jamaica Plain Training Chous and Concert Chorus, St. Mary's School Choir, John Marshall School Children's Chorus, The Gentlemen of Tufts University and the St. Theresa of Avila Children's Choir. Many of the groups sang old favorites of BCC's... The John Marshall School Children's Chorus' gave a lovely performance Show Me How, under the direction of former Villa Victoria conductor June Ambush who dedicated the performance to BCC. Additionally, the Boston City Singers Concert Chorus sang Rollo Dillworth's I Dream a World, comissioned by the BCC in 2005, which touched the hearts of longtime BCC members in the audience. At the end of the concert, all ten groups performed a spirited rendition of Jim Papoulis' When I Close My Eyes, which was a great finale.

Training Choir Concert at Roxbury Community College!

March 21st was a big day for the BCC. Not only did all four training choir's give a great concert at Roxbury Community College, but BCC also offered a day of professional development, allowing chorus teachers from across the state to learn about the BCC process. During the day, guest artist Mary Ellen Junda gave assistant artistic director Michelle Adams tips on how to improve her conducting and teaching, and directed the choirs enhancing the performance. The final performance went wonderfully; the singer performed with gusto and the music educators got to see BCC's process of music making in action.

PC performance at Harvard Leadership Fellow Event!

On March 12th, Premier Choir had the joy of performing in the Harvard Class of 1959 chapel. The space was quite unique; not an ordinary chapel by any stretch of the imagination. It's cylindrical shape allowed for incredible acoustics and the greyscale interior decorating contrasted nicely with our fabulous red uniforms. The event was apart of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative. The topic of the weekend was basic education and what role higher education can play in improving basic education and providing everyone with equal opportunities. In some schools the budget for music education and performing arts programs is being cut because of financial issues. I believe that music education is a fundamental part of education and should be included in the basic education that everyone recieves because it can help foster analytical thinking, creativity, communication, leadership and teamwork skills, so it was interesting to see how that related to the purpose of Harvard's think tank. Preceding our performance, Hubie Jones gave an introduction explaining the creation and mission of the Boston Children's Chorus and how it relates to education. We then sang a few pieces, notably Como Tu, Suscepit Israel, and Plant a Tree, all of which were well recieved by the audience. After the performance, some singers took the opportunity to attend a very interesting forum hosted by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School, titled "Crossing the Lines: Closing the Gaps in Education" with panelists Ron Ferguson, Charito Kruvant, Andreas Schleicher, Ruth Simmons, and Lea Ybarra.
- Casey Accardi

Concert Choir performs with Emmanuel Music!

Another great performance for BCC! In our most recent concert, BCC's Concert Choir performed with Emmanuel music at Emmanuel Episcopal Church (http://www.emmanuel-boston.org/).

Concert Choir started out with One With The Darkness, a piece arranged especially for Emmanuel Music! After the stellar performance, the choir went backstage where we got some extra practice (and relaxing!) time.

After our downtime, we came back on stage to perform a Bach Cantata, Mit Fried und Freud, one of Bach's 400 cantatas!

Overall, it was another great success for BCC!

Guest Writer: Lydia Guterman, Concert Choir

BCC Benefit Concert!