Cincinnati Boychoir Inspires Values

“No matter where you come from and where you start, singing brings you together in life,” KellyAnn Nelson told me.

Those words are KellyAnn’s passion and her driving force behind her career and her impact. Founder and Artistic Director of the Young Professionals Choral Collective of Cincinnati (with a roster now of about 1000 singers ages 21 to 45), she is also managing artistic director for the Cincinnati Boychoir and has served as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator and presenter at various National, All-State and Regional honors choir events, conferences and choral/vocal jazz workshops in Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina, Connecticut, Minnesota, Kentucky and Indiana.

The Cincinnati Boychoir’s annual Sing Me A Story: A Christmas Carol holiday extravaganza is tonight at the Aronoff Center and the more than 200 members will be singing holiday favorites plus new songs destined to be classics.

If you are unfamiliar with the Boychoir, it is a 53 year old organization that has grown to become one of the premiere professional boychoirs in the United States. Hundreds of students from more than 990 different schools come to the Aronoff Center for the Arts each week to prepare beautiful music, make friends, learn, and strengthen character values.

I asked KellyAnn to share how her work with the Cincinnati Boychoir has touched and inspired her.

In Her Own Words…

I have the privilege of watching these boys grow from squirrelly new singers into talented “big brothers”.  I’m also able to craft experiences for them that allow them to work with incredible talent, travel to see incredible places and perform on incredible stages.

Most importantly, they get to see the power of music in action.  They get to shake the hand of a nursing home resident whose eyes fill with tears as they listen to “Deck the Halls” and remember Christmases past.  They get to sing “Carol of the Bells” for a few thousand people in the heart of downtown and watch the littlest kids stop running around for a moment to pretend like they are ringing their own bells.  And they get to take music that they’ve been perfecting for months out into the community at large and share it.  Our youngest humans learn to give and create happiness by sharing what they can – not money and gifts, but intangibles like songs and smiles.

At the Cincinnati Boychoir, we run every program decision through three lenses.

1. Does the opportunity allow the boys to engage in their community?
2. Does the opportunity allow the boys to grow as humans?
3. Does the opportunity allow the boys to travel – either figuratively or literally?

This summer our Ambassadors are headed to South Africa, and this February our DeltaChor and JourneyMen hop on a bus for Philadelphia.  But all of our boys travel – be it to a school gymnasium where they can show other boys that it’s “cool” to sing, show emotion and have fun, or to the stage of Music Hall with the Cincinnati Opera – because music lets you go places in time, in your city, or in the world like nothing else can.

My boys sing well.  But I’m most proud when they sing Happy Birthday to an overtired friend in the choir, or smile at their neighbor as that chord they’ve worked on for so long finally locks.  Our boys help each other, make friends who don’t live in their own neighborhood, and become great citizens who look out for each other while looking outward toward other people they meet at concerts, on trips or in rehearsals.  I’m so proud of them.  But I get a little emotional at this time of year when they are singing – a lot.  It’s powerful to seem them realizing the power of sharing music with others.

Tickets are still available for tonight’s Sing Me A Story: A Christmas Carol. If you miss this show, there are many other opportunities to see and hear the Cincinnati Boychoir.