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About Us |
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The Boy Singers of Maine provides an opportunity for boys who enjoy singing to come together, in an atmosphere that supports the whole boy, to study music and perform an exciting repertoire that comes from a wide range of cultures and traditions.
The Boy Singers of Maine is a non-profit educational organization incorporated
in December 1979 and managed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Our choirs rehearse twice a week at St.Mary'sChurch in Falmouth and perform in three self-produced concerts each season. |
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The
Concert Choir
The Concert Choir is the principal performing treble choir of the Boy Singers, which regularly makes numerous public appearances both within and outside Maine. The Concert Choir comprises boys from about age 8 or 9 to about age 14 – beginning when they have developed the needed musical ability and personal maturity and continuing until their voices change. The boys attend rehearsals twice a week and receive an outstanding musical education in the course of preparing for their concerts and tours. |
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The
Lower Octave
The Lower Octave, a young men’s choir, comprises boys of middle and high school age whose voices are changing or have changed. Like the Concert Choir, the Lower Octave is an active performing choir. It offers to any young man an opportunity to sing a challenging, sophisticated and varied choral repertoire. While many Lower Octave singers have come from the Concert Choir when their voices changed, prior Boy Singers experience is not required – newcomers are always welcome to audition to join the Lower Octave! |
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The
Lyric Choir
Boys who are new to choral music begin their training in the Lyric Choir, starting as early as second grade. Although this is primarily an instructional choir for younger boys, both rehearsals and performance opportunities help to hone the boys’ skills and the Lyric Choir does perform several times each year. Boys are placed in the Concert Choir as their musical ability and personal maturity develop. |
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Over the past 30 years, the choirs
of the Boy Singers of Maine have performed throughout
Maine, New England and other states, Canada, England, France and the former Yugoslavia. They performed at the
White House for the National Festival for Peace, at inaugural
festivities at the Maine State Inaugural Ball and at the New
England Governors' Conference. They have performed for Senators
William Cohen and George Mitchell and for three Maine Governors. |
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Important
for the boys' musical growth is the opportunity to collaborate
with many renowned orchestras, directors, choral groups
and individual performers. They were honored to perform
Britten's War Requiem with the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra.
In a less classical vein, they accompanied Judy Collins
at the State Theater Christmas Concert. As guest artists
with the Portland Symphony, the boys performed Mahler's
Third Symphony and numerous times in the Magic
of Christmas, singing both by themselves as well as accompanying
Maine 's own young star vocalist, Laura Darrell. |
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Barenaked
Ladies Dec. 2005 |
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The
boys have appeared in Maine State Ballet's
The Nutcracker and with the Choral Art Society
in Orff's Carmina Burana. The boys also collaborated with
the Portland Youth Symphony to debut The Lighthouse, composed
by Michael Braz, a former music director of the Boy
Singers of Maine. In December 2005, the Concert Choir performed
in the opening set with the Barenaked Ladies in
their holiday concert at the Cumberland County Civic Center. |
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The boys have
demonstrated their
talent and broadened their musical education and experience on tour.
They performed in London, Ontario, at the International Boy Choir Festival
under the direction of Dr. James Litton, then director of the
American Boy Choir. In 1998, they performed at AmericaFest, a choir festival
for men and boys held at St. John's University in Minnesota. In April of 2000, the Concert Choir traveled to Toronto to
participate in the Toronto International Choir Festival under
the direction of internationally renowned children's conductor,
Jean Ashworth Bartle. That same year, Lower Octave travelled abroad, performing in France and England. In 2002, the boys toured within Maine, sharing their music with their fellow Mainers at venues in the central and northern regions of the state. In 2004, the Concert Choir participated in a national children’s choir festival in Philadelphia while the Lower Octave took part in an international choir festival in Stowe, Vermont. In 2007 and again in 2009, Concert Choir and Lower Octave toured together to Laval, Canada, neighboring Montreal, to participate in the international choral festival, the Mondial Choral Loto-Québec. |
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