History of the Chattanooga Boys Choir
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The Chattanooga Boys Choir (CBC) was founded in 1954 and is the oldest boy choir in the southeastern
United States. Started by local music teacher Caroline Brown as one choir of thirty boys, the organization now includes over 120 boys in five different ensembles from across the Chattanooga area and northwest Georgia. Members represent over thirty different public, private, and parochial schools and several home-schooled students. The Chattanooga Boys Choir has performed all across the United States and in nineteen different countries around the world including England, Australia, Mexico, and Germany. Most recently, the CBC has represented Chattanooga in performance tours around the world including the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Canada. They choir made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 and appeared at the renowned Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC in 2006 and 2012. In 2013 the Chattanooga Boys Choir performed in Havana by invitation of the Cuban Ministry of Culture, becoming the first children's choir from the United States to perform in Cuba in over half a century. From the great cathedrals of Europe and the White House to Major League ballparks and the Grand Ole Opry, the CBC represents the city as Chattanooga’s “Ambassadors of Goodwill.” The CBC regularly hosts other choirs and groups performing in the Chattanooga area. Recent host events include performances with Black Jacket Symphony, the American Boychoir, Maryland Boychoir, St. Olaf Choir, the Varna Choir of Men and Boys from Bulgaria, and numerous collegiate choirs. The choir also regularly works with some of the finest artistic organizations throughout the Chattanooga area, including collaborative performances include the Chattanooga Symphony & Orchestra and Youth Orchestras, the Chattanooga Choral Society for the Preservation of African‐American Song, Ballet Tennessee, University of Tennessee‐Chattanooga and Lee University choirs, and many others. The CBC has also appeared in several commercially released recordings, including Peace on Earth by Casting Crowns (2008) and RE:CREATION by Stephen Curtis Chapman (2011). The choir was also featured in the GRAMMY™‐nominated recording of Maurice Ravel’s opera L’enfant et les Sortilèges by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. The choir’s educational program prepares its choristers for lifelong participation in music‐making and the choral arts. Students utilize the choir’s Computer Music Theory Lab and custom‐tailored musicianship curriculum to learn both basic building blocks and advanced musical concepts. As part of its educational aims, the choir hosts in‐service clinics for local elementary school music teachers and serves as a training ground for collegiate interns in both Music Education and Non‐Profit Management programs. The choir also regularly presents workshops and clinics for university music methods courses, choral music and music education conference, and church music training events. The CBC has also taken bold initiatives in the community including benefit projects and concerts for the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, Newton Child Development Center, St. Andrews Center, and the Chattanooga Partnership for Families & Children. The CBC presents a biennial ecumenical Community Hymn Festival with participants from area church choirs and its annual Only Men Aloud! men’s choir festival for young men in the Scenic City area. CBC choristers also make personalized recordings of the names and addresses of pre‐school aged students to assist the young children in learning and verbalizing this important information. The Chattanooga Boys Choir is fortunate to be a grant‐funded cultural partner of the Tennessee Arts Commission and ArtsBuild of Greater Chattanooga. |