After reading the letter from the Alumni association, and learning about the bright future of the choir school, I have decided that it will be important to me to make a trip to New Jersey this summer to meet with my former boychoir classmates, camp cohorts, and the many, many staff and faculty that played such a big role not just in my own musical development but in my transition from a boy to a man.  One last meeting at the place we all called home, the place we ate, drank, and slept, the place where we learned how to be a world-class ensemble.  I know that I’m being melodramatic here but there is something very unique about Albemarle (the name given to the ABS campus).  The history of that house could tell thousands of stories, both good and bad, with the countless number of people who have lived and worked there.  It’s going to be a shame to lose such a wonderful place in the middle of Princeton but this move does not end the school, it doesn’t change their mission.

The mission of The American Boychoir is to sustain and move forward with a distinctively American voice the one-thousand-year-old boychoir school tradition. The American Boychoir is committed to being the finest choir of its kind in the nation and among the finest in the world. The American Boychoir achieves this each year by recruiting and training talented choristers from across the country.

The mission of The American Boychoir School is to combine the training program for mastery of choral music with a superior academic program in order to create a profoundly integrative educational experience which emphasizes creativity and such traditional values as self-discipline, self-reliance, hard work, teamwork and dedication to long-term goals.

It is a testimony to the vision of the institution’s founder, Herbert Huffman, that after sixty-nine years the objectives stated in the School’s original charter are as apt today as they were in 1937:

1. To build character in young boys and prepare them for good citizenship.
2. To provide an exceptional training program for musically talented boys, regardless of their religion, social background or financial circumstances.
3. To make this unique opportunity the motivation for general educational attainment.
4. To help enrich the cultural life of the nation and to produce a musical organization that is recognized throughout the country as the finest of its kind.

As today’s stewards of The American Boychoir School, the board, faculty, staff, parents and students affirm these objectives.

All of those things above remain intact and all of those currently working at the school fully support this mission and the boychoir’s continued success.  This move will enhance not just the vocal opportunities of the students but it will allow ABS to grow and prosper for decades to come.  All of us who have spent any amount of time at the school will cherish our memories of that old house, both the good memories and perhaps even the bad ones, and all of us recognize that in order to grow, we must be willing to let go of the past and embrace the future.  I will make it a point this summer to reconnect one last time with Albemarle (how I’m going to do it, I have no idea), and I will make it a point to hold on to my memories while embracing a bright future for the school.

I’m posting 2 videos below.  One from Libera and one from Billy Joel.  In their newest release, Libera performs one of Billy Joel’s most emotionally gut wrenching songs which never earned him the fame that it should have.  I learned how to play this song on the piano strictly by ear and it was on ‘repeat’ on my CD player for a good long time.  It’s one of my favorite songs, not just because the melody is so haunting but because the lyrics are timeless.  Billy Joel released this in 1993, I was 18 years old, just finishing a rocky time in High School and I was reflecting on what the hell I wanted my life to be.  This song always reminded me that the people who stood by me throughout would always be there for me in the future.

Here is Billy Joel

Here is Libera

Here are the Lyrics:

Good night my angel time to close you eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you’ve been asking me
I think you know what I’ve been trying to say

I promised I would never leave you
And you should always know
Where ever you may go
No matter where you are
I never will be far away

Good night my angel now it’s time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay

And like a boat out on the ocean
I’m rocking you to sleep
The water’s dark and deep
Inside this ancient heart
You’ll always be a part of me

Goodnight my angel now it’s time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child will cry and if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart there will always be a part of me

Someday we’ll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die that’s how you and I will be

Journey through Canyons from Metron on Vimeo.

I expect to see Chris Colfer on Broadway once his run in Glee is over.  His voice is simply one of a kind.

In other news, I’ve recently become a HUGE fan of the Musical Sitcom “Glee”!  I have pretty much fallen in love with this show for a couple of reasons.  Primarily, this show pretty much sums up my entire High School career minus some of the glitz and glamor.  In addition to that, they have taken and re-done a whole shit load of some of the most popular songs from my adolescence and then combined them with some pretty spectacular show tunes.  I would not be a qualified gay man if I did not melt over a good show tune and the kids in this show hit the mark every time.  I imagine, had I actually gone through and finished school, this is the sort of choir I’d be directing at this point in my life.  At the very core of the show though it is about a high school Glee club filled with geeks, nerds and a couple of jocks from the football team mashed together to demonstrate the complete drama of high school, and the triumphs of each of the kids as they work through that difficult time in their lives.  I relate especially well to Kurt, a kid struggling with his sexuality (he is openly gay) and a kid not afraid to excel using the upper range of his voice.  In the clip below (sadly there is no video, just audio), he is singing a duet with one of the leads in the show (Rachel) singing the incredibly awesome ”Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked.  I can’t help but remember my experiences with my good friend and regular duet partner Rachel as we both swam through the cesspool of adolescence together.  It is VERY rare that I get sucked in to shows like this but this one has really hit the mark for me and I’m sure many other choir geeks out there in the world.  I hope they can get a few more seasons out of it before it runs it’s course.  Enjoy.

A Quiet End for Boys Choir of Harlem

Even as a choir boy from a rival group, I was able to hear this boychoir perform a few times and they were indeed a well trained choir.  They had a distinct sound and an enthusiastic following.  It always saddens me when a well known group folds and stops doing what they do.  Their fate resulted from many things but their decline began because of a sexual abuse accusation that unfortunately took away the remaining financial resources of the choir.  The same things have rocked the American Boychoir School in the past but they have managed to survive intact.  I’m not going to lay out judgement because shit happens, even to people and organizations with the best of intentions.  I know that.  I’ve lived it.  Their music will be missed.

Now listen to the real deal:

They played quite a long set.  They managed to work through their entire new album consisting of 10 new songs and they also got in nearly all the standards.  Power of Two, Kid Fears, Galileo, Ghost, Last Tears, and several songs from their Nomads, Saints, and Indians album.  Whether it’s a good thing or not, I was able to sing along with every song, even the new songs.  I think Mom, Dad, Nancy, and Joan had a decent time as well.  Mom was excited to hear a couple of the songs that Sarah had performed, in all it was a great night out and a great concert.

One of the great benefits of a band that is fiercely independent (they have their own label, do their own tours, and their own marketing) is that they get to make the rules.  Despite printed warnings from Interlochen about the use of cameras and video during the concert, the Indigo Girls really don’t give a dam especially now that they are an independent label.  You can actually go to their official web site and barter for bootlegs of their concerts.  Anyhow, I managed to get one good picture of them performing Power of Two which is one of my favorite songs.  I’ve posted the picture below as well as the song for you to enjoy.

[flashvideo file=Music/Power.mp3 width=480 height=21 /]

Tomorrow it’s back to work.  I now have to work straight through until next Tuesday.  Work is getting long right now.  I don’t hate going in to work, but lord I wish time moved faster.  I’m coming up on a vacation too so that just makes things drag.  Hopefully I’ll get back to posting more on this blog soon.  Working 50 hours a week makes me really tired and I just don’t have the motivation to write when I can barely keep my eyes open.  Oh well, this has been a good and productive summer so far, hopefully I can keep up the trend.

I was watching some video last night and came across this pretty awesome choir video.  The singing isn’t the best in the world but the way they present the song is pretty dam cool.  This was a big pop song when I was about 14 or so.   Now it’s classic rock…haha.  Check it out.

[flashvideo file=video/hands.flv /]

YouTube Link – this one can’t be embedded:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-KiGva9dV4

I’m typically not a fan of these types of variety shows.  The fates and dreams of thousands of people who try out for a chance a the big time tend to lay (falsely) in the hands of 3 mega judges with agenda’s and a typically naive audience voting population.  Sometimes however the right people do indeed get the exposure they deserve.  This show may well be Susan’s big break and you can bet that her life will never be the same again after this audition.  Whether she goes on to to win the competition or not is no longer relevant.  She will now have enough recognition to land a recording contract and she will be able to retire doing what she spent her entire life attempting to do.  Ride the Wave.

For a preview of their album you can go to their web site at Indigogirls.com

There are a number of performances that have stuck in my mind as being significant for me while I was in the boychoir.  Several performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington DC are among them.  Our performance at the ACDA conference in 1989 in Louisville, KY was however one that I remember even beyond those.  It was certainly one of our better performances but that’s not why I remember it.  It’s because it was then, after hearing some of the other choirs and being around thousands of professional choral “fanatics” that I began to realize how this medium affected me on a deeper, more personal level.  I didn’t begin to fully recognize or appreciate the significance of my boychoir experience until this single performance.  We performed just a fraction of our standard repertoire for this audience but two encores were required to appease the crowd.  I walked off that stage knowing that choral music would play a significant role in my life for years to come and it certainly did.

Things change, people change…people often change directions too.  As it turned out, continuing down the path of music education was not necessarily my calling in life.  For that matter, school in general was not my calling in life.  Were it not for the incredibly tedious hours of biology, math, English and all the other random liberal arts requirements, I might have actually made it through collage.  You know there is a problem though when you look at your marks for the semester and see 4.0 for all music related activities and classes and either drops or very low marks on everything else.  Having succeeded in submersing myself in the field outside of school, I saw a career path that fully supported my musical ambitions but one that I would never be allowed to have without also knowing the basics of Algebra and the Periodic Table, neither of which I had any interest in what-so-ever.  So, while I’ll never put finishing that degree completely out of the question, I’m in a good place now as a happy choral aficionado content bringing home a much bigger salary so I can buy the music I love to listen to.

So, while I’ve got you hooked on the topic, I’m going to post a video of a newer song from the group Libera.  I’ve sort of made my peace with this group over the past year and come to appreciate more what they do as a choral organization (separate from the actual choir).  It’s quite hard for me to classify Libera as a ‘real’ boychoir because it just isn’t.  They are significantly supported, corrected, enhanced, and projected by some really incredible technology and an ingenious entrepreneur.  ABS could learn a great deal from their business model.   In a strict sense, Libera needs to be classified differently from the traditional boychoir like the American Boychoir or Vienna Boychoir.  These facts however do not diminish what this choir does for the boys singing in it.  Each of the talented soloists from this choir over the years has gone on, just like me, with a significant appreciation of music which in my mind is far more important than the ‘traditional vs. popular’ debate.  There are plenty of critics out there who decry this group for what many times can sound like a glitzy over produced choir (with a LOT of help from technology) but it is often those same people criticizing who have been unable to achieve any level of significant success with their own groups.  The bottom line in my opinion is not about sound (that’s important but in different ways) but it’s about having a sustainable organization that can promote, train, and educate young people in the art of choral music.  Music (in whatever form) is a critical element of our society and if we fail to introduce new generations to the amazing creations of composers from the past and especially to those in the present, we are doing a disservice to everyone.  Everyone and anyone can sing to some extent and choirs (from public schools to private schools like ABS) have many lessons to teach young people about working together, about creating art, and about sharing with each other.  These are all values that humans need to survive in our complex world.

I went into all that  because over the past year, I’ve regained contact with many of my peers from ABS.  Our 20 year reunion is in a few weeks and unfortunately I won’t be able to attend.  Looking over their histories though since ABS, I was not the only choirboy who was influenced greatly by being a part of ABS.  A significant percentage of my peers are now music professionals, from conductors, to composers, to producers spanning the entire spectrum of the music industry from Hollywood to Carnegie Hall.  Currently, a classmate who was in the grade below me is now one of the directors for the American Boychoir.  He has come full circle from choirboy to conductor for the educational organization that likely gave him his start.  That, to me, says a great deal about our experience and about the over all importance of music education.

Enjoy.

The other reason I’ve not written much is because I have recently purchased a new High Def TV and an XBox.  My attention has been on the boob tube as well as trying my luck at video games (which I’m not real good at but I’m learning).  My economy is doing pretty well lately.  Profit sharing has it’s perks, especially now that I’ve been with my company for a while.  I’m finally starting to realize the snowball effect (ask me sometime what that is if you don’t know).  In another week I’ll get my yearly managers bonus which is going to be nearly twice what it was last year.  This will put me on a pretty good footing financially.  Sadly, there are lots of folks out there who are not as lucky as I am.  I’m in a good place and I’d really have to fuck up bad at this point to lose it.  I don’t foresee that happening.

On a happy note, the Pet Shop Boys have a new album being released this coming week.  I never get sick of these guys.  I’ve included their new video below.  This promises to be a great CD, I can’t wait to get it.

On to politics.  This week you should note that the CA supreme’s will take up the case against Proposition 8 which repealed marriage rights for homosexuals in California.  There is all sorts of shit you can read on this by clicking the links to the various GLBT blog links to the right.  After oral arguments, the court will have 90 days to render a decision on the issues before the court.  I’ll be interested to hear the outcome as it will have an impact (good or bad) throughout the country.  Not right away perhaps but eventually.

Off to bed now.  I’ll write more when I can find the time.  Gonna be a busy few weeks away from the computer I think.

Oh how I wish this web site had been around when I was attempting to draft musical compositions (something I suck at).  I hated learning the proper (traditional) styles of composition.  My professors hated my handwriting, not to mention my flat out refusal to avoid perfect traveling octaves in my assignments (among other composition faux-pas).  I’ll readily admit that I’m not a composer and I do indeed get why understanding the rules are important (it’s like proper grammar).  To me, music composition was ALWAYS first about how it sounded to ME the composer.  I had enough experience in classical, choral, and to an extent Jazz music to know what sounded good and what didn’t.  If it worked for what I was composing and it happened to break a rule, big fucking deal.  My professors saw things differently.  I learned a great deal being ridiculed by my composition professors and then given handshakes from my peers after class for doing my own thing and ticking off the prof.  No really, I don’t fault them for their insistence that I learn how to do things correctly.  It was for a grade after all, once I was out of their class I could do whatever I wanted…and I did.  Anyhow, for you composers out there, check out this web site.  If you are still writing in long form (and not using a computer), this might save you a little money.  Looking back, I think if I were in school today in a composition class, professors might treat my anti-rule attitude in regards to composition a little differently considering the evolution of music.  I think my profs were a little put off by me too since they realized that I still saw myself (and was being treated by my peers) as a big fish in a little pond.  My background, stubbornness, and the talent I was willing to express forced them to constantly try to keep my ego in check and that was a lot of work for a few of them.  They knew better than I did, if only I had allowed that to sink in a little further.

So on the same technology lines, I was thinking the other day as I added more friends on Facebook from high school, that my class was the last one in 1991 (my Sophomore year) to officially learn to type using a typewriter.  The following year, Christian Hell High installed a new computer lab and from that point on, kids learned using computers.  It’s crazy to think that in under 20 years, we’ve advanced so much that nearly everything I grew up with (except for Tinker Toys) is obsolete.  It puts into perspective a little what my parents must think about some of the tech toys I show them.

Well, it’s off to bed now.  5am arrives far too early.