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/

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.