VietNamNet Bridge – The well-known Boston Children's Choir will perform in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City at the end of June.

 

 

The choir will arrive in HCM City on June 23 and take a tour to the Mekong Delta, followed by a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels – part of the underground network of passageways constructed by the Vietnamese resistance fighters during their long struggle for independence. After the trip, they will see HCM City's centre and perform at the HCM Opera House on June 26.

They will also perform at the Ha Noi Opera House on June 29 after touring the Old Quarter and Bat Trang ceramic village. After their five-day stay in Vietnam, they will leave for Cambodia.

The Boston Children's Choir, founded in 2003, is an innovative arts education organisation that unites children ages 7 – 19 without regard for race, religion or socio-economic status. The choir is a part of the social and cultural organization of Boston, which aims to harness the power and joy of music to connect communities. The choir is known to the public with good ideas to change society , erase the boundaries of racial difference through music. That's also where young people have the opportunity to cultivate the personality, leadership skills, and each member is an ambassador of harmony. It began with only 20 children in a pilot training programme and today has 450 singers in eleven choirs in five Boston locations.

With the participation of the advisers who are leading artists, scholars in the field of music, music education of America, England, Venezuela, etc. the choir has had many successful tours inside and outside America.

In 2011, the choir was presented with the Margaret Hillis Award as an excellent art institution. It is also the first youth choir in America that had its first concert broadcasted live on the primetime on Luther King Day with millions of viewers across the USA.

The orchestra was founded by Hubie Jones, a national leader, who spent nearly five decades to address the social issues that face the vulnerable communities in Boston.

Hubie Jones wanted to promote social development, social integration of young people of different races and to heal the society through a music organization like this.

Jones thought that a group of children regardless of race can help heal the scars that Boston gets from bad and sometimes violent battles to eradicate racism in school in the '70s. Even now, after 40 years, the school system in Boston still has racism. Most of the white children in Boston go to schools with the majority of participants are white. Most black and Latino children attend schools where they are the majority.

Martin Luther King said that: "The life’s piano can only ring tone of brotherhood when the black keys are also considered essential, important and beautiful as the white keys." The Boston Youth Choir also share that thought.

The Boston Globe compared the choir as a "bright angel", while King Abdullah II of Jordan said it was great and Federico Cortese of the New England String Orchestra praised them as one of the emerging force in the musical life of Boston.

Lan Anh