Boston City Singers host season finale at the Strand on Saturday

Over 100 young Dorchester and Mattapan residents will be harmonizing on the Strand stage this Sunday with 200 other young greater Bostonians. The Dot-based Boston City Singers (BCS) is once again assembling its Concert Chorus Division and its Training Choruses from Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and the Cambridge Children’s Chorus for an end-of-year finale.

“We’ve got singing, dancing and drumming!” promises Rachel Johnston, BCS publicist.

On Sunday afternoon (May 31) at 3 p.m., the various choruses will be “Singing All Together” for its annual reunion at the Strand. Admission cost is a goodwill donation. The celebration caps a season that marks achievements like appearing on PBS and provides a breather before some remarkable summer appearances including ones in Central America.

Closing the season in Uphams Corner, a tradition in recent years for the BCS, was not possible last year because of the extensive technical upgrade work at the former movie palace.

Boston City Singers was founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Jane Money to provide outstanding opportunities for children to come together through music in their own neighborhoods. Twenty years later, 16 different programs provide comprehensive sequential music instruction to 500 young people aged 4 – 18.

Weekly rehearsals are designed so that singers develop progressive mastery of skills coupled with performance, youth development, cultural exploration, leadership training, and community service components.

All of the Dorchester programs rehearse at All Saints Church in Ashmont. They include the Tour Choir, Cantare, World Rhythm Ensemble, Dorchester Neighborhood Training Chorus, and the Dorchester Kodály Class

“Singing All Together” highlights the international scope of BCS’s repertoire. The show opens with a patriotic Puerto Rican tune (“Que Bonita Bandera”), followed by folk songs from Morocco and Jamaica, “Danny Boy” from Ireland, and from the US, everything from spirituals to show tunes.

BCS’s World Rhythm Ensemble, led by master drummer Kimani Lumsden, is made up of select Tour Choir members who get advanced training in the complex rhythms of the Caribbean, South America and Africa. Kimani also teaches dancing to the Tour Choir when a piece calls for it; Sunday they will be dancing on both of their pieces (“Nelson Mandela” and Jamaican Folk Song Suite).

And what a season to look back on!

BCS’s Tour Choir made their first public television appearance ever on the premiere of new WGBH’s singing competition “Sing That Thing!” on April 17.

Natalie S., a 6-year member and high school senior says, “This is amazing. Boston City Singers has taken me around the world and now they’ve made it possible for us to sing on TV. We have worked very hard all year, and we were so excited to be chosen.”

BCS will also have the opening slot at the 2015 Chorus America Annual Conference, held this year in Boston. The Tour Choir will perform a program on the theme of “Our Dreams” that features vocal traditions from world cultures, June 17 at the Boston Park Plaza.

The 45-voice Tour Choir, under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director Jane Money, is made up of singers ages 11-18. The group has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina, and will travel to Costa Rica in August 2015.

Boston City Singers is now accepting applications for all divisions in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester and North Cambridge. For more information and to apply, visit bostoncitysingers.org.


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