• We are launching Global Voices, a series of international collaborations with world-renowned choruses and musicians. This Fall, we will kick off the series by hosting Cantores Minores of Finland during their North American Tour, with a concert at Arlington Street Church in Boston on October 22nd. Cantores Minores is a choir of 75 boys and young men from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Our second international collaboration is scheduled for December 8 when we will perform with the St. Mary's Diocesan School for Girls Choir from Pretoria, South Africa, at the Church of Our Saviour, 25 Monmouth St., Brookline.
  
  
• Next August (2007), the BCS Concert Chorus will represent Boston in a Goodwill Tour to Melbourne, Australia. We will visit Melbourne, Boston's sister city, for a series of concerts, workshops and international exchanges. Our hosts will be Young Voices of Melbourne, one of Australia's leading youth choruses. During the summer of 2009, BCS will host Young Voices in Boston during their next North American tour.

Notes from Our 2006 Tour to Denver, Colorado:

In July, the BCS Concert Choir joined more than 300 North American singers from nine choruses, and the Young Voices of Colorado Concert Choir at the "Sing a Mile High" International Choir Festival at the University of Denver. For four days, we sang with guest conductors Dr. Rollo Dilworth (Director of Choral Programs at North Park University in Chicago), and Dr. Catherine Sailer (Director of Choral Studies at University of Denver's Lamont School of Music).

"So finally, - the Festival Concert. Boston City Singers opened the program with an energetic rendition of "Morning Tide" followed by "Pangur Banâ", a wonderful poem from the Book of Kells that New Zealand composer David Hamilton arranged for BCS. The chorus performed with so much expression and vitality, allowing the audience to learn first-hand why BCS is known as "Boston's acclaimed youth chorus."

"The second half of the concert was the culmination of all the rehearsal time and hard work put in by the guest conductors and choirs. Over 300 children, all in their contrasting concert attire, filled the stage. 20 pure soprano voices, including our own Winta and Shu Yi, chanted the opening line of "Psalm 92" as they processed with candles through the auditorium, their voices finally melding with the massed choir on stage; it was simply skin-tingling..."

• Jamaica Plain has started the year with more than 50 eager singers in two groups: a Kodály Singing Class for children in grades K through 2, and an Advanced Training Chorus for singers in grades 3 through 6. Weekly rehearsals are on Saturday mornings and new singers are always welcome. The chorus will present a concert on Saturday, December 2nd at 11am, at the First Church, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain.
  
  
• We are restarting our South Boston program and welcome our new director, Carol Spinelli! Carol has been directing choirs and building community through music for over 26 years. Rehearsing on Monday afternoons at Saint Peter's Academy in South Boston, this group is open to singers in grades 3-6. Also starting in mid-October, Carol will work with young singers at the Neighborhood House Charter School.

We are looking forward to watching our youngest singers progress!