Posted on 12/29/2009 9:08:07 AM PST by sitetest
For more than three decades, they sang Mozart in Latin, Bach in German, and Cole Porter and Stevie Wonder in English, from Alice Tully Hall in New York to Royal Albert Hall in London.
For the audiences that marveled at the Boys Choir of Harlem, it was an additional wonder that the young performers with world-class voices had emerged from some of the most difficult neighborhoods of New York. December was always a busy month, as the choir toured the country’s premier concert halls and appeared on television Christmas specials.
But this year, the boys are nowhere to be found. Last week, Terrance Wright, a 39-year-old choir alumnus, picked up a microphone in front of the altar of Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home, and delivered news that surprised few people but saddened many.
“Tell the people. Let it be known,” Mr. Wright said, glistening and exhausted after leading a Christmas concert by former singers in the choir. “There is no Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Enough said!!
I’m almost done with the finale. Have just heard Bobby McFarrin conduct a “master class” in vocal percussion. Wow!
Harlem was one of the great incubators of American music until the kids all decided they wanted to emulate Snoop Dog
One more sign that the apocalypse is upon us. The Goths are at the gate.
Well, as it is called the Boys Choir of Harlem, that is hardly surprising.
I was also intrigued by the choreography and costumes. They did a great job putting everything together.
Thanks for telling me where to find it.
Since Clinton was the first ‘black president’ and has an office in Harlem—let him take up the cause.
The choir’s demise as a functional organization was a result of many factors, but everyone agrees it was set in motion by a single episode: an accusation by a 14-year-old boy in 2001 that a counselor on the choir’s staff had sexually abused him. The counselor eventually was sentenced to two years in prison.
The accusation and the scandal that followed — Dr. Turnbull did not report the claim to the authorities and allowed the counselor to continue working with children — set off a chain of events that led the city to oust the choir in 2006 from the Choir Academy of Harlem, the school building that had been its home. That, in turn, deepened the choir’s already serious financial problems.
Owing millions in payroll taxes and penalties, and immersed in a lawsuit stemming from the abuse accusations, the board of the Boys Choir gathered in the months after Dr. Turnbull’s death, said Howard Dodson, the leader of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. Mr. Dodson was brought onto the board, along with former Mayor David N. Dinkins, in an effort to save the choir.
Obama wouldn’t like them. They’d sing Gospel songs. That isn’t the “black” way.
Sadly, while politicians talk a lot about education and saving our youth from a life of drugs and crimes, when it comes time to support a positive program like the Boys Choir, these windbags are silent. The Obama administration is a prime example...particularly aftrer having allowed school vounchers in DC to expire, but to be fair, past administrations and past congresses haven’t exactly done anything for our youth. About all they do is throw millions of dollars at the schools which do nothing but enrich the administrators and the unions.
Hopefully this choir will come back, maybe in another name.
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