Posted on Feb 1, 2014 in
FEATURES
The Fort Bend Boys Tour Choir performed the National Anthem before a Houston Texans’ game in August 2013.
By Zeenat Kassam Mitha –
For those of you who may not be aware of a cultural phenomenon in our great county, The Fort Bend Boys Choir of Texas, Inc. is an important part of Fort Bend history. The renowned choir began in 1982 by Founder and Artistic Director William Adams as a hobby, and it has now grown into the largest independent boys’ choir in the nation with five performing ensembles and 200 choristers.
“The choir was organized to give boys with special musical abilities and interests an opportunity to perform more challenging choral literature from classical selections to folk music,” said Adams. The choir is a mixture of eagerness, passion, along with youthful and artistic wisdom.
At the annual Holiday Concert on December 7th at the Sugar Land Baptist Church, guests enjoyed four performing choirs – Training, Town, Tour and Music Magic. This was one of many of the choir performances throughout the year. In addition to their regular performances, the Fort Bend Boys Choir is also hired for events, including weddings, community events and retirement programs.
“The Fort Bend Boys Choir is comprised of boys aged 6 to 15 or through voice change,” said Executive Director Tiana Mortimer. The culturally diverse Tour Choir travels locally, nationally and internationally on tour, learns multi-cultural music and offers world-class music education. Some of the places the choir has performed include the 30th Anniversary Tour de France, the 25th Anniversary Australia Tour, the Eastern Canada 2005 Tour, the 2012 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the San Diego to Los Angeles Tour 2011, the Michigan Tour and the Colorado Tour.
This year, the Tour Choir will perform with the Houston Symphony, Houston Symphony Chorus and other artists for Mahler’s No. 8 Symphony. The performances will be on May 9th and 10th at Jones Hall. Also called Symphony of a Thousand, the Tour Choir was specifically requested by former Houston Symphony Music Director Christoph Eschenbach. The Tour Choir will also be on a two-week summer performance tour in June 2014 to Illinois.
Due to the distinctive choir education, the choristers benefit from various long-standing values. They learn science (the study of acoustics); foreign languages (many musical terms and lyrics are in Italian, German and French); mathematics (rhythms are based on divisions of time through fractions); history (music often reflects the environment of its creation) and physical education (coordination of the body and proper breathing techniques).
Some of the key offerings the organization is proud of is that choristers develop self-discipline, self-esteem, leadership, responsibility, respect, teamwork, confidence, commitment and maturity through an empathetic environment.
Nationally acclaimed, the Tour Choir has been highlighted a number of times on local and national television stations for specials and news segments, including ABC’s Good Morning America, a national NBC television special with Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson at NASA, a television holiday special entitled Houston Hometown Holiday, an NBC Houston Incredible Kids segment and on CBS Houston’s United We Sing news segment.
The Fort Bend Boys Choir has also appeared in several television commercials including: American General Life Insurance, Randall’s Food Markets, Tom Thumb Food Markets, Cinco Ranch, Mazda North America, Inc., United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.
In May 2013, the Fort Bend Boys Choir was awarded a 2:1 matching grant of $25,000 by The George Foundation. Thanks to private donors and grants from other foundations and organizations, they reached their goal. This month, a special Gala Dinner and Auction will be held on February 8th with a patriotic 1940 WWII/USO theme. Funds raised will help support all five of the organization’s music programs.
For more information on the Fort Bend Boys Choir, visit www.fbbctx.org or call 281-240-3800.
