The other boychoir

Another boychoir came through town on tour, the American Boychoir, and selected members of the Northwest Boychoir (including Jordan) opened for them. The American Boychoir has a great reputation; they have been regarded as the United States' premier concert boys' choir. It's a residential program, meaning the boys are in choir-centered boarding school, with about 15 hours of rehearsal a week and 100 performances a year. They have fallen on hard times in recent years (financially) and have been struggling as an organization. Our boys welcomed theirs with a social dinner, and then sang a twenty-minute opener to their ninety-minute concert, with all the proceeds benefiting their choir. I was super curious, because I don't think I've ever heard any boychoir in person other than ours, and this is supposed to be such a good one.

Their opening number was very beautiful and magical, delivered in a surround-sound kind of thing with boys arrayed around the perimeter of the room. And they had an entertainingly diverse repertoire: they did not only classical boychoir music but also Nigerian highlife music, a crazy Amazonian-jungle-noises kind of thing including an a capella passing storm, and other global vocal things. But I thought our boys' vocal quality was in another league from theirs. Ours have this incredibly rich, full sound, as pure as a diamond bell, yet filling the whole space in the church so fully that it vibrates your whole body along with it. I think that kind of sonorous perfection comes partly from getting every tiny little thing exactly right - every vowel shape, every rhythmic detail - and partly from having a kind of vocal training in which your voice becomes a beautiful instrument, so that listening is like being inside a concert violin. I think the other choir does not have either of these things, at least not at the level that we do. Their voices seemed thin and tense and reedy in comparison. They slumped their shoulders and shifted their feet. Their diverse repertoire was more about being fun than about being perfect (e.g., jungle sounds). And also I just think it might be impossible to pull off singing Nigerian highlife music in a tuxedo shirts and bow tie in a church without looking a little ridiculous. Jordan's director stays strictly within genre, and I am all for it. They should sing the music that showcases their extraordinary, specific talents. 

I came away feeling extremely impressed with our boychoir, and especially with Jordan's director, who knows how to bring out such amazing musicianship from these middle-school kids. They've got a truly great thing going.