My Spring Break - Recruiting for BCC

By: Marlon Matthews, Young Men's Ensemble 
Marlon has been in BCC for 8 years. He is 15 years old. 
         
Over the week of March break that my sister Allana and I share, we decided to volunteer at BCC Central. We had done this before and were both prepared for simple days of filing, computer work, shredding, or sorting music literature, but Mr. Victoria had more exciting plans for us. On the Friday of our volunteer week, Allana, Mr. Victoria, and I went to the Josiah Quincy School for a recruiting session with elementary level students. The school building is literally across the overpass from BCC, which makes these kids great candidates for BCC because they don’t need transportation!

            The day started off with Allana and I singing 30 seconds of “Lean On Me” into the intercom for morning announcements. This went surprisingly well considering it was 8:30 in the morning and neither of us had warmed up. The real recruiting started at the lunch periods. I can’t remember which grades we met first because they were all so small, a lot smaller than I remember ever being!

            Allana is friendly, but she is more of a commander than a field agent, so she stayed at the recruiting desk with Mr. Victoria while I went out to individuals and told them about what it is like to be in BCC. I wasn’t too worried about recruiting the girls for two reasons. The first, most of them claimed to be the next American Idol, and the second, none of them traveled alone: if one was interested in the table, seven would show up. My main focus was the boys and letting them know that choir is fun and not just for the girls. Among the younger boys, a common response I got was “I like music, but I don’t like to sing,” “I don’t/can’t sing” or “Can I have another free pencil?” I quickly countered that the best part about music is singing, that choir teaches you how to sing, and no, only one free pencil per person. In the end, I was able to convince a significant number of young boys to take audition forms home to their parents so they could at least give it a try before they say they don’t like it. I noticed that the older boys were more stubborn about not participating in choir. Most of them were more into “guy stuff” even if they didn’t play a sport; they thought choirs were for the girls. I was still successful in getting most of the older boys to take audition forms, but some only came to me for a free BCC pencil.

Marlon and Allana recruiting for BCC at Josiah Quincy School in Boston

            As our day came to its end, something dawned on me: “This is what needs to happen on a regular basis.”  BCC needs to go out and recruit for young kids that will stay in choir longer than high school students, who sometimes join Young Men’s Ensemble without participating in training choirs first.  When that happens, they only have a maximum of four years in the choir. I am a freshman now and I have been in BCC since it was dreamt up by Mr. Jones. I have been here for eight years, and my days are numbered. I won’t always be a student at BCC - none of us will. My point is that the choristers (not just the staff) need to seek out the “generation” coming up behind us. We all can admit to the fact that it is easier to trust someone that has experienced whatever it is they are selling. We can also admit to the fact that someone our age is easier to relate to than someone notably older or younger. On that Friday a week ago, I was able to help keep the cycle of BCC going because I could relate to the boys I was reaching out to and I could tell them of my own experiences. I recommend that everyone with more than two years under their belts at BCC should spend a day recruiting during a school break.

Fun Opportunities for Boy Singers

By: Kobi Russell, Central Intermediate
This is Kobi's 5th year singing with BCC. He is 11 years old. 

I recently had the chance to experience two great opportunities for boy singers. A BCC Staff Member invited me to the Young Men’s Choral Festival at Boston Latin School, and I decided to go. I did not sing in it, I was part of the audience. I went with my family. It wasn’t just the BCC YME (Young Men’s Ensemble), but other boy and men choirs as well. It was very cool to see and hear so many males in song at once, which is rare! The music went from silly and quirky, to Gospel, to sea shanties! It was very enjoyable! I could imagine myself doing that concert when I was older! 

Kobi demonstrates his changing voice for Fernando Malvar-Ruiz and other music educators in attendance at BCC's Professional Development weekend

Making Music with Magda

By: Maddie Mechem, Concert Choir

In the last two weeks before winter break, we had the privilege of working with Magda Albarracín, a choir director from Venezuela. She was teaching us two songs, Pata Pa’ca, and Acto del Árbol from Opereta Ecología. Both songs are in Spanish and have a percussion line with a complicated series of claps, snaps, and stomps. It was hard to figure out, but extremely fun. Unfortunately, Magda had to go back to Venezuela. But however short it may have been, that was definitely an experience to remember, and Pata Pa’ca should be extremely fun to perform.

Here is a video of Concert Choir working with Magda - please leave a comment to let us know what you think! We hope you'll come see the final product at our performance on April 9th at Old South Church, featuring another Venezuelan, Conductor-In-Residence Maria Guinand! For detailed information on this concert, please visit our website: http://bostonchildrenschorus.org/feature/maria_guinand

Top 10 of Fall 2010! Part One

As we head into Winter and begin to prepare for MLK Day 2011, its time to reflect on the Fall of our 8th performance season at BCC! There has been no shortage of excitement for BCC this Fall! This is the first of a two-part series on the Top 10 of Fall 2010!(in no particular order)

1. Performance at the Deval Patrick Rally

On October 16th a small group of BCC singers had the incredible opportunity to perform the National Anthem at the Democratic Rally for Deval Patrick, at which Barack Obama spoke. Following the Anthem, the BCC singers got to stay at the rally and mingle with James Taylor and Barney Frank among others, and following the rally, some singers shook hands with Barack Obama. What a great day for BCC!

2. Hubie Jones awarded the Purpose Prize
Hubie Jones, our fabulous founder, is a winner of this year's Purpose Prize for his work in founding BCC. The Purpose Prize is a title awarded to social entrepreneurs over 60 who, in their encore careers, are using their experience and passion to make an extraordinary impact on society’s biggest challenges. Way to go Hubie! Read more about it at boston.com.
3. Villa Victoria performance at Fenway Alliance Event

This year the Villa Victoria Traning Choir continued the wonderful tradition of performing at the Fenway Alliance's Opening Our Doors Day, an event that brings together various arts organizations in the Fenway Area for a shared celebration of creativity. This was the first performance for John Reynolds in his new role as Conductor of the Villa Victoria Training Choir -- kudos to John!

4. Our First Composer-In-Residence -- Bill Banfield
This year, for the first time ever, BCC has an official Composer-In-Residence! Bill Banfield, a exceptional author, recording artist, and composer is joining us this year to create various pieces of music to compliment our repertoire. Most recently, Bill composed a pair of pieces for us, titled "Love Is" and Love Says". Watch the video below to see Bill explain the inspiration behind the piece.

5. BCC Participation in the Samaritans 5k

On October 2nd, PC members got up bright and early to sing, and run at the Samaritans' Annual 5k! Over a dozen BCC members and staff participated in the race, and raised nearly $1000 for Samaritans! Click here for more photos from the event.

Stay tuned for the rest of the Top 10!

Guest Blog Post - Concert Choir Update!

Maddie Mechem, a Concert Choir member, describes the her current experience in Concert Choir...

Editor's Note: Concert Choir is performing Mahler's 8th Symphony with the Nashua Symphony this weekend! Click here for more information.

Lots of Music by Maddie Mechem, 11/8/10

Well, these last two rehearsals were certainly busy for those of us in Concert Choir. In the past two weeks, we have had professionals from the Boston Children’s Theater, and the Executive Director of the Nashua Orchestra, Eric Valliere, visit our rehearsals to see what we’re doing at BCC and help us prepare for upcoming performances. The amount of music we have to learn is reaching a crescendo. You could say that German has become kind of a second language, and the holidays have come early. The major piece for this half of the season is Gustav Mahler’s 8th symphony, which is over 200 pages long! Of those 200 pages, we have to sing more than sixty. This piece is one of many pieces currently residing in our black BCC binders. After a quick count, the most current Concert Choir music tally is seven holiday songs, two German and/or Latin songs, and two so far uncategorized songs. That is eleven pieces of music, nine of which will be performed sometime in the next three months. That is a lot to learn in not much time! On the bright side, we will never run out of things to keep us occupied, AND we get fancy new shirts to wear for performances this year, along with the usual white BCC oxfords.

More Mahler by Maddie Mechem, 11/15/10

The Mahler madness is reaching its peak, as the first concert is less than a week away. Sunday was our first rehearsal, and our last rehearsal is on Friday. Then, on Saturday, it’s off to Lexington for the first of two concerts. We have some work to do between now and then. We were missing cues and whole sections of the song, and we have the equivalent of about five hours to get this right. But after all of this is over, we get to take a break and begin to prepare for the holiday concert. As mentioned in a previous post, we have seven songs to perform, four of which we have been assigned for homework (CC: don’t forget! This is highly important!). Because Mahler requires a ton of time and effort to learn/perform, delaying preparation for the holiday concert is kind of a given. Even with all the stress of looking for cues and singing over all the other people, it will be fun to perform, especially with the awesome, all-black uniform, as well as the fact that we are going to be part of a huge group of people, all of whom have worked hard to make this work. As to what happens and how well it works, that must wait for another post.

Check back soon for another update from Maddie!