Northwest Boychoir

Jordan seems to like music a lot. He has always had an excellent ear (since he was a toddler), and he seems to be learning a ton at his music program at school. He has very good pitch, great rhythm, and an excellent memory for tunes. We're feeling like it's time to start him in some kind of formal music training, and why not choir? I loved it for many years (in fact, I'm thinking of getting back to it). Making music with other people is a wonderful thing. Seattle has a choir called the Northwest Boychoir that takes boys as young as six. I've heard them practice (they're in a community center nearby) and we know some people who were in the choir as kids; it's a very good choir, and a fun, rewarding, tight community where kids make lifelong friends as well as learning a lot musically. They don't start until the fall, though. Meanwhile, we have started Jordan on piano lessons with a neighborhood teacher who also instructs several of his classmates. That's going well, and we'll see how things shape up as he continues. 

The Northwest Boychoir makes you audition. I explained to Jordan that auditions are "tryouts," and that it's a two-way tryout: they are trying you out to see if you can do a good job in the choir, and you are trying them out to see if you like what they do. The first audition is one boy, one parent, and the teacher, whose name is Ben. Jordan had to sing a song all by himself (he sang a song he knows from choir at school). Then he sat at the piano with Ben for "piano games." Jordan couldn't resist playing the piano for Ben, which was not on the agenda, but what do I know, maybe it was informative. (He played "Ode to Joy," two hands!) He also did pitch-matching and imitating clapped rhythms. Nailed both of those. The hardest exercise was when Ben played a chord and Jordan had to sing back the individual notes; he got about half of those. He liked the teacher and said he enjoyed himself.

Jordan got the callback for the second audition, which was today. At the second audition, they gather all the new boys into a room and do an hour-long lesson to see how they are in a group. No parents. Jordan loved it. He bounced out of the room at the end bubbling about how much fun it was and singing the songs they had learned. I couldn't hear much from the lobby, but I heard enough to know that they learned Dona Nobis Pacem. I think that's a pretty good sales pitch; it's such a beautiful piece, and simple enough that they could really get somewhere in an hour. Here are the boys that were still in their places when I went to pick him up. Jordan's not in the picture because he jumped up to greet me.

Apparently the second audition went well too, because we got the call this evening congratulating him on getting in! Very exciting! We're delighted, and Jordan is very proud.