“We are not colorblind”
At the Boston Children’s Chorus, music helps overcome the boundaries between races, religions, (ethnic) origin, and social status. "Chorzeit" met with Artistic Director Anthony Trecek-King (Chorzeit is Germany's Choral Magazine and translates to Choir time - the vocal magazine"
Mr. Trecek-King, how was the Boston Children’s Chorus founded?
The Chorus was founded in 2001 by black civil rights activist Hubie Jones. His idea was to create a chorus which would act as a catalyst for social change. In Boston, as in many other American cities, the divisions of different segments of the population play an increasingly larger role. The issue is how to overcome this social divide. Jones maintained that a chorus was the best way to do this because people sing in every culture.
How does that look in practice?
We bring children with different social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds together and give them a musical training, teach them about music, and have them perform. Over the years, a socially active model has developed along side the music. Our motto is: Because we do not live in a colorblind society, as for ancestry (origin, heritage), we also don’t want to suppress that. Just the opposite. We want that the society values different colors. That’s precisely what we want to attain with the Boston Children’s Chorus.
How do you get children for the Chorus?
Recruitment for students is one of our primary tasks (missions). We try to recruit for our project as many public and private school students as possible. This has become a close cooperation, which is based on mutual trust. The enrollment process itself is easy. Almost every interested child is accepted. Then it is about finding in which of our participating choruses is the right one to optimally challenge the child.
That means that no one is turned away?
Exactly. It’s all about giving everyone a chance! After all, it’s not the students’ fault if they haven’t yet developed musical skills. Maybe (some) children won’t go into our touring chorus, but we still want to find a place for them in our organization. Our goal is not necessarily to train great musicians, but to fill people with enthusiasm for singing.
How many participating choruses are there in the Boston Children’s Chorus?
There are 13 choruses that preformat four different levels. Each child finds the place where he or she can best develop. The more tailor-made the programs, the better and faster the children can develop.
How big are the respective choruses?
The beginner choruses (“learning choruses”) have between 30 and 35 children. The middle level choruses are similarly big, and about 60 children sing in the concert choruses. The choruses that we take on tour are the two best ones, which also have 35 singers (singers-female and singers-male) each.
Which music pedagogy do you use?
We work with, among others, the singing pedagogy of Zoltan Kodaly, which has proved optimal for our purposes. We combine this with our own experiences and methods. That way we achieve the best results in a short time. Because we as a rule see the children only once a week, we also give them short homework and practice (self-practice) to do at home. It’s always about demanding from individuals so they will develop in their group. Of course, it’s a challenge, but it works.
How does it work to bring the children from such different backgrounds together?
At first, the children notice differences and similarities. Do they go to the same school, or do they have the same skin color, or the same preferences? From that comes very simple recognitions like: OK maybe this child looks different from me, but he/she likes the same chocolate ice cream. This is more or less how it works with the youngest ones. With the older ones we talk explicitly about subjects. For example, when the 17 year-old African-American Trayvon Martin was shot in Florida in 2012, there were discussions. The white students could imagine themselves in the place of the blacks much better after that. It became clear to them how their African-American friends feel in a racist society – but also how much power prejudices have. This happens with us in an unprejudiced and safe environment, in which, in contrast, students are not generally engaged.
In addition to this, are there any social projects with which the students can …
The singers choose each year a certain theme that interests them. It could be about, for example, people with suicidal thoughts or the homeless. The kids volunteer at telephone crisis services or at emergency shelters for the homeless. That looks at first as if it doesn’t have anything to do with our concerts. But actually the adolescents gather experiences here that they bring into the music. Such competencies lead to a very emotional entrance into the interpersonal realm as well as music.
In the concerts, the children sing almost everything from memory, which affects the audience very directly. How difficult is it to get to this level?
To be honest, it’s not so hard, because at this age children profit from an unbelievable memory. Plus they are always reminded to sing the pieces from memory. I say something like, “Learn the first measures by heart already! or “Sing the first page from memory already!” The children are always at work learning by heart, and before I even expect it, they are singing the piece from memory. Naturally, there are always special challenges, like now on tour, when we sing particularly complicated commissioned pieces.
So what does the repertoire look like overall?
I feel obliged to impart to the children as wide a repertoire as possible. We sing many spirituals, because I find it important to keep this tradition alive, and also songs that are connected to the protest and civil rights movement. Naturally, works from the classical repertoire also play a role. Each year, for example, there is a Bach Cantata on the program, because the children should also grow up with this music. We sing pieces from Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughn Williams or Aaron Copland. Along with this, there is an abundance of songs from other cultures. The interesting thing is that we always find someone in the chorus who is especially familiar (with that music). For example, as we did a piece from Haiti, a singer could precisely explain what this piece meant in the Creole language. Many Spanish songs are in our repertoire and there some Mexicans with us. In this way, the singers in our chorus feel noticed and respected.
How is the Boston Children’ chorus financed?
Public funding is rare in the US. We get contributions from individuals, families, and also foundations. The families of the children pay small fees according to their ability. In addition, there are also the admissioni fees for our concerts.
You use the term “Citizens of the World” for the children of the Boston Children’s chorus.
That has to do first of all with the international origin of our singers (singers-female and singers-male). But we also travel a lot. In Germany and the Czech Republic, just as we were earlier in Vietnam, Cambodia or the Middle East. We have to show the children how the United States is seen from the outside, and at the same time, one understands other cultures better when one travels there. The children should have the feeling that they have contact with many cultures and people.
The conversation was led by Arne Reul, music and culture journalist for radio and the print media.
Anthony Trecek-King has been the Artistic Director of the Boston Children’s chorus since 2006, which has received many awards since then. Before this, he was Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska and Leader of the Nebraska Choral Arts Society. At the BCC, one is proud that according to their own reports, all the young singers (singers-female ?) go on universities and well-respected colleges, independent of their social origin.
Picture caption, first page: Anthony Trecek-King and his Boston Children’s chorus foster a diverse musical inheritance.
