This weekend Uphams Corner’s Strand Theatre will host successive free performances by large youth choral groups from Dorchester and around the city. The Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC) appears on Saturday, May 19, at 2 p.m. followed by the Boston City Singers (BCS) on Sunday, May 20, at 3 p.m.
The two organizations are splitting the cost of the rental of the risers on which the youngsters will stand to perform.
BCC works with 450 ethnically diverse youth in 11 different choirs at four different skill levels rehearsing at four sites throughout the city. The two Dot-based ensembles are identified as Dorchester House Training Choir and the Dorchester House Intermediate Choir, but recently those have become slight misnomers.
BCC’s John Reynolds, who directs these and other neighborhood choirs, explains, “Due to renovations at Dorchester House, the two Dorchester-based choirs of the Boston Children’s Chorus have rehearsed at our South End headquarters for the past two seasons. We are excited, however, to return to Dorchester for our tenth anniversary season, 2012-2013.”
Reynolds has strong praise for the Dot-based ensembles, which he says “have grown tremendously over the past few years.”
“Beyond expanding ensembles, we are seeing growth in other areas: musical development, an increase in youth involvement from surrounding neighborhoods, and an investment to create community among singers and singers’ families,” Reynolds said.
The Friday afternoon Training Choir will do two Benjamin Britten songs “There was a Monkey” and “Old Abram Brown.” The Intermediate Choir will do “Jingle At the Window” (American Folk Song); “El Barquito” (Venezuelan Song); “Wheels A-Turnin’ “and “Homeward Bound.”
This concert, the only annual event in which all 11 BCC choirs appear together, is free, but reserved seating tickets are required. Request those seats at bostonchildrenschorus.org or call 617-778-2242.
Sunday’s “Singing All Together” will showcase some 350 singers from all BCS’s 9 choruses, 5 of which are located in Dorchester. The concert will feature two BCS vocalists who were finalists in the Boston Pops 2012 Young Artists Competition.
BCS’s Sequential learning program has three stages: Kodaly Singing Classes (ages 4-6); Training Chorus level (ages 7-11); Concert Chorus level (ages 11-18).
BCS’s Founder and Artistic/Education Director Jane Money reports, “About 90 percent of our kids come from Dorchester and Mattapan. We’re able to get so many locals through our partnerships through local schools like John Paul II Catholic Academy, and partnerships with groups like Dot Art.”
Kids in BCS’s Wednesday afternoon Ashmont program get the opportunity to learn an instrument, practice singing and do an art project courtesy of Dot Art.
Dot Art’s Executive Director Liz Carney elaborates, “For example, after these 7 to 9 year olds have been learning to sing lyrics by Langston Hughes, we offer them a chance to explore these same ideas in a different medium like painting or collage.”
For more information on “Singing All Together” and all other BCS’s concerts and programs visit bostoncitysingers.
