By Meghan and Hannah Laurence, Students at Encore
Last Fall, we auditioned for and were accepted into the first ever Boston Symphony Children’s Choir (BSCC)! The audition process was challenging and involved singing a prepared song, sight reading, and pitch matching. Encore helped prepare us for this process in the selection of our music and through the strong emphasis on musical theory we have received through our participation with the recording ensemble and our RCM instruction.
The BSCC was invited to stay in residence for two weeks at Tanglewood as part of the BSO summer series. In July, we spent a week preparing for and performing as urchins in the BSO’s production of “La Boheme”, an opera by Puccini. We stayed in hotel for the week and spent the majority of our days in rehearsal working with prominent names in classical music including James Burton, Andris Nelsons, Kristine Opolais, and Daniel Rigazzi. When we weren’t rehearsing, we hiked in the Berkshire mountains, attended dance performances, attended other performances by the BSO, and went to the museum. We had a great time and, despite the fact that it poured rain during our performance, the opera was well received and we got a standing ovation. The day after the Saturday night opera, we performed our own concert as part of the Tanglewood Summer Sunday’s series. We sang music from a catalog of children’s choral music called Friday Afternoons. One of the best parts of that experience was that the composer and writer of two of the pieces was actually at Tanglewood that weekend. He came to our rehearsal and gave us feedback on our performances of his songs.
In August, we were asked to return to Tanglewood to reprise Mahler’s Third Symphony. Although we were excited to perform this piece for a second time, the highlight of this second trip was being asked to be part of an interview series for New York Public Radio on what it was like to perform Mahler’s music. We, along with two other members of the chorus, answered questions about our musical experiences, what it felt like to be in the choir, and what it was like to sing the part of angels in the choir. The other cool part of that week was that we were at Tanglewood as the BSO and celebrity guests prepared for the Leonard Bernstein celebration performance. We got to hang around Tanglewood with Yoyo Ma, John Williams, Susan Graham, Keith Lockhart, and Audra McDonald.
This experience was one of the most influential times in our lives. We had the opportunity to live like professional musicians for two weeks and take a peek at the life of a musician at the BSO. This also helped us gather more knowledge on what it takes to make it. This experience proved how hard it can be to be successful in this field as an artist. We made good friends, performed in front of large crowds, and gained appreciation for the educators who brought us here and made this trip possible. Overall, these performances opened our eyes to the diverse world of music, and we are very excited to continue our training with the BSCC. Please come see us sing with the Boston Pops at all of the children’s matinee performances of the Holiday Pops!