CY Posts
WHYY’s Newsworks visited Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) at First Presbyterian Church in Germantown at the start of the new season in September, and tells about KSB, the choir’s fabulous Australia Tour 2014, and more.
See the story and watch the video on the Newsworks site here.
On September 20-21, 2014, kNOw Tech 4 Teens (kT4T) will launch the first-ever “kNOw Tech-A-Thon,” the 21st Century version of the dance-a-thon. Hosted by Commonwealth Youthchoirs, it will involve teenagers from Keystone State Boychoir, Pennsylvania Girlchoir, and Philadelphia Sinfonia. Hundreds of young people will remain “tech free” for 24 hours to raise awareness of the positive and negative impacts of technology on their lives while raising funds for a good cause.
The first-ever “kNOw Tech-A-Thon” will culminate with a concert performed by the teens on Sunday, September 21 at the the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown at 4:00pm. The concert is also an official event of “Peace Day Philly!” Jane Clementi will give a keynote address at the concert about how teens can do their part to bring about peace in the world by refraining from tech-based acts that could lead to violence. Jane’s son Tyler committed suicide in 2010 shortly after he discovered his roommate had violated his privacy using remote video technology.
Leading up to the “kNOw Tech-A-Thon,” participating teens will ask people in their lives to sponsor them for agreeing to be “tech-free” for 24 hours. They’ll fill those hours with engaging activities that will allow them to connect with family and friends without the distraction of technology. Activities include reading, participating in the arts and athletics, eating (“kNOw Tech @ The Table, “kNOw Tech Brek,” and “Tech Crunch Brunch”), a talent competition (“kT4T Idol”), and a teen sleep over (“kT4T Lock In”). All activities are aimed to help the participating teens remain tech free, while encouraging them to think about ways they can “tech 2 live” and not “live 2 tech.” The teens will post messages on all of their social media accounts, letting the world know they are going tech-free for 24 hours. Their sponsors are encouraged to monitor the teens social media accounts – such as facebook and Twitter – to help keep the teens “honest.” If a teen is found to violate their tech-free pledge, the teen’s sponsors are not obligated to honor their pledges.
Those interested in supporting this event can visit knowtech4teens.org/sponsor-a-teen.
About kNOw Tech 4 Teens
kNOw Tech 4 Teens (kT4T) is a new non-profit organization whose mission is to help young people raise self awareness and awareness in others about the positive and negative impacts of technology on their lives while raising funds for a good cause. Via “kNOw Tech-A-Thons,” kT4T helps teens to harness the power of technology without letting it stifle human connectedness, facilitating better focus, independent thinking, and individual and group creativity. kT4T’s “kNOw Tech-A-Thons” raise the question, “Do I tech to live or live to tech?”, and encourages teenagers to answer that question for themselves. kT4T is very much pro technology, offering engaging non-technology based activities that will help teens develop habits and practical strategies to better balance the use of technology in their everyday lives.
kNOw Tech 4 Teens was founded on the philosophy that a young person’s ability to harness, balance, and at times refrain from, the use of tehnology will be crucial to reaching their goals, attaining their dreams, and living a meaningful, people-centered, fulfilling life.
Visit knowtech4teens.org to learn more about how your teen-based organization can host its own “kNOw Tech-A-Thon,” raise technology awareness, and raise money for a charity of your choice.
About Commonwealth Youthchoirs
The Mission of Commonwealth Youthchoirs (CY) is to provide superior choral music education and performance opportunities for young people from diverse economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds and to pursue artistic excellence that inspires performers and audiences alike. CY serves over 600 singers in four different programs: Keystone State Boychoir, Pennsylvania Girlchoir, Find Your Instrument! and Good Mornin’ Music! Visit cychoirs.org for more information.
About Philadelphia Sinfonia
Philadelphia Sinfonia is one of the premiere youth orchestras in the tri-state area, taking a broad and contemporary approach to the study of orchestral music, with a curriculum that emphasizes teamwork and three different areas of growth and development – musicianship, scholarship and leadership. Visit philadelphiasinfonia.com to learn more.
About the Tyler Clementi Foundation
The Tyler Clementi Foundation (TCF), guided by the life and story of Tyler Clementi, promotes safe, inclusive and respectful social environments in homes, schools, campuses, churches and the digital world for vulnerable youth. Through educational partnerships, research, public dialogues and awareness programs, TCF fosters empathetic, constructive discussions of respect and dignity for youth and families, at all levels of society. Visit tylerclementi.org for more information.
Media contact
Steven Fisher, Founder & Executive Director kNOw Tech 4 Teens
215-704-3407
sfisher@kt4t.org
download a copy of the release in pdf format
“Here she comes…” Miss America Nina Davuluri was host for the Commonwealth Youthchoirs (CY) Gala on June 16, 2014 at Verizon Hall of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S. Broad St., Philadelphia. The grand event honor the 90th birthday of Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem. In addition, the Pennsylvania Girlchoir celebrates their 10th anniversary. Prominent Philadelphia lawyer Ajay Raju and and his wife Pamela were Honorary Co-Chairs.
There was a very special surprise in store for Miss America when she was be treated to a “Bollywood” style performance to honor her heritage and recreate a portion of her personal talent performance from the pageant (singers from Keystone State Boychoir toured India in January with Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi). Additional select repetoire from the India tour also were part of the performance.
Highlights of the Gala also included the honor for Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer, who was celebrating his 90th birthday. While the composer was ill and not able to be physically at Verizon Hall, he was represented by his sister, who received the recognition in Rorem’s absence. In addition, Pennsylvania Girlchoir celebrated their 10th anniversary.
The concert featured more than 500 singers from all four of CY’s musical programs. In addition to Keystone State Boychoir and Pennsylvania Girlchoir – two distinguished ensembles with worldwide reputations, Find Your Instrument!, a music program at several Philadelphia public schools that otherwise would have no vocal music training and Good Mornin’ Music!, an early music education experience for children PreK through Grade 2, were also represented on stage.
CY was founded in 2001 by Joseph Fitzmartin and Steven Fisher as a non-profit organization to bring music to kids, ages 8-18, from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. The singers represent all five Pennsylvania counties in the greater Philadelphia region, as well as New Jersey and Delaware. They are ambassadors for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at home and abroad.
KSB and PG perform Jai Ho – with the Jai Ho dancers – while Miss America watches (left)
The choirs combine to perform at the 2014 Gala
Pennsylvania Girlchoir joined by PG alumni celebrate the choir’s 10th Anniversary singing their signature “Total Praise”
From the March 27, 2014 Playbill.com:
Featuring a book, music and lyrics by Steven M. Fisher, the 3 PM reading will be directed by David Glenn Armstrong with music direction by Micah Young.
The cast also includes Tony Award nominee Forrest McClendon (The Scottsboro Boys), Rosena M. Hill Jackson (After Midnight, Spamalot),Darlesia Cearcy (The Book of Mormon, The Color Purple), John Henry Cox (Desire Under the Elms, Macbeth), Alan H. Green (Sister Act, Play On!), Aisha de Haas (Caroline or Change, Rent), Isaiah Johnson (Far From Heaven, Peter and the Starcatcher),Nehal Joshi (Les Misérables, Threepenny Opera), Jacob Ming-Trent(Hands on a Hardbody, Shrek), Paul O’Brien (On a Clear Day…, The Importance of Being Earnest), Ben Schrager (Roaring Company’scolumbinus), Michael Sharon (Folger’s Richard the Third, Long Wharf’s The Fantasticks) and Nick Wyman (Catch Me If You Can, A Tale of Two Cities).
The show will also include 60 members of the Keystone State Boychoir and Pennsylvania Girlchoir, who will bring the sounds of South Africa to the presentation.
Read the rest of the article on Playbill.com…
In hopes of bringing healing and solace to the Newtown, Connecticut community, the Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) performed in concert at the Trinity Episcopal Church on June 23, 2013. Six months after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 26 adults and children were shot down, KSB sang to honor the victims and help bring healing to the community. KSB joined the Connecticut Choral Society, the New Jersey Choral Society and the Choir of Historic St. Malachy’s Church in New York City. Some of the families who lost loved ones were in attendance.
KSB was invited to sing by conductor Eric Dale Knapp after the choir’ recent performance of John Rutter’s Mass of the Children at Carnegie Hall. The choir departed from Philadelphia on Friday, June 21, to begin their tour in New York City. The Newtown performance is part of KSB’s summer tour that also includes a major performance at the historic Actors’ Chapel at St. Malachy’s Church in Times Square in New York City to perform Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb there for choir and organ. The famous St. Malachy’s Church recently had a new pipe organ installed, and KSB’s performance is part of its inaugural season.
KSB’s concert in Newtown included selections of remembrance, peace and hope in addition to the Mass of the Children, including Kurt Bestor’s haunting Prayer of the Children. The shootings shattered the town and pierced the hearts of people throughout the world. The free concert was to help bring solace to the community there. Last summer, KSB traveled to Norway and performed for families who lost children in the 2011 summer camp mass shooting there. As part of the Norway tour, KSB also performed in a ceremony in Oslo for Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
KSB has spread the gift of music far and wide and is the only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents. In 2009, KSB made history as the first choir to perform in Antarctica. Internationally, KSB has performed in the world’s major concert halls, including the Manaus Opera House in Brazil, the Petronas Philharmonik Hall in Malaysia, and the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam, as well as in venues throughout Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Monaco, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway.
For information about the Newtown concert go to http://www.ctchoralsociety.org.
Watch this video from Newtown, edited by Jeff Soffer:
Find Your Instrument! (FYI!), Commonwealth Youthchoirs’ initiative to bring music education to Philadelphia schools without core music programs, is one of five finalists – and the only Arts and Culture program – in the Impact 100 Philadelphia competition for one of two $100,000 grants to be awarded by the organization on June 3, 2013.
Impact 100 started as a group of civic minded women who each contribute toward annual awards for initiatives based on community impact and past successes. The members will vote on the finalists at the group’s annual meeting. The three finalists who are not awarded $100,000 will share the remaining $84,000 raised toward this year’s awards.
If awarded one of the $100,000 grants, FYI! will expand to two more after-school programs in additon to John Wister Elementary School in Germantown. FYI! is under the direction of Keystone State Boychoir’s Associate Music Director Steven Fisher, and the expanded program will partner with the School District of Philadelphia and the music education department at Temple University.
View the WHYY/Newsworks report on FYI! and Impact 100 Philadelphia
Girls Empowered Through Music (GETMusic), a new initiative of Pennsylvania Girlchoir, will bring together more than 350 girls from across Philadelphia for a weekend of intensive music making. The festival is made possible by the support of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge.
Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge funds innovative projects that engage and enrich Philadelphia’s communities.
Planned for fall 2014 for girls in grades seven through twelve, the GETMusic festival is Pennsylvania Girlchoir’s creative answer to activist Eve Ensler’s call to girls to “be their authentic selves,” giving young female singers the affirming experience of learning and performing repertoire written and conducted by women. The weekend will culminate in a public performance at a major Philadelphia cultural venue.
Vincent Metallo received a Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia 2013 award, with Donna Frisby-Greenwood (L), Philadelphia Program Director for Knight Foundation. photo credit Susan Beard
“When you sing with a choir, especially a choir of such excellence as Pennsylvania Girlchoir, you are able to do something that far surpasses what you could do alone,” notes Susan Ashbaker, former executive director of Commonwealth Youthchoirs, of which Pennsylvania Girlchoir is a member choir. “The empowerment the girls will feel when they raise their collective voices is something they can each take with them for the rest of their lives. It teaches unity, strength, confidence. It perfectly melds with our mission to provide superior choral music education and performance opportunities for young people from diverse economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds and to pursue artistic excellence that inspires performers and audience alike.
“Musical experiences like the one being put together by the Pennsylvania Girlchoir are an important way to develop and empower the city’s future creative minds,” said Dennis Scholl, VP/Arts at Knight Foundation.
Details on the festival and a call for festival participants will be released as the festival weekend approaches. Learn more about Pennsylvania Girlchoir at pennsylvaniagirlchoir.org.
About Pennsylvania Girlchoir:
Pennsylvania Girlchoir, under the direction of Vincent Metallo, Music Director, maintains a repertoire steeped in the classical tradition and enhanced by music from many cultures and time periods. Established in 2004, the Pennsylvania Girlchoir has sung with the region’s most distinguished ensembles and received critical acclaim. Music critic Michael Caruso said of their recent performance of Fauré’s Requiem with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, “The beauty of the singing of the Motet Choir … was nothing short of breathtaking. The girls sang with flawless tuning, immaculate blend, effortless projection and exquisite phrasing.” Pennsylvania Girlchoir is a memberchoir of Commonwealth Youthchoirs.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation:
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged.
Ready to Sing! Peace Concert, Hiroshima, Japan
Zach Crenshaw, age 13, was disappointed that he wouldn’t be doing anything exciting during his Spring Break from Germantown Friends School. Then he got a call from his choir director inviting him to travel to Japan during spring break and participate in a worldwide musical event for peace.
On April 1, 2013, musicians from the city of Hiroshima and musicians representing the five nuclear weapon states performed together and appealed for nuclear abolition at the “Concert for Peace in Hiroshima” at Aster Plaza in downtown Hiroshima. Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) was selected to send six members to represent the United States.
KSB members joined about 35 mainly younger musicians from Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China to perform in the concert. Also performing were about 100 musicians from Hiroshima. Concert organizer Yasuko Mitsui said, “I would like to convey our wish to leave a peaceful world for future generations”.
Ave Verum Corpus in Hiroshima
It is fitting that KSB was selected to represent the United States, as KSB is the only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents. In 2009, KSB made history as the first choir to perform in Antarctica. More recently, KSB sang at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway for Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi and presented her with a Liberty Bell. Internationally, KSB has performed in the world’s major concert halls, including the Manaus Opera House in Brazil, the Petronas Philharmonik Hall in Malaysia, and the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam, as well as in venues throughout Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Monaco, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway. Recently, KSB made its Broadway debut with Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell.
KSB brings together 175 boys, ages 8-18, under the direction of Joseph P. Fitzmartin and Steven M. Fisher. The Keystone State Boychoir encourages and welcomes boys of all experience levels to audition for the choir.
See more from the Hiroshima trip on the KSB Blog.
