Keystone State Boychoir

Mr. Fisher (right) and PG and KSB teens at the Kimmel Center for the overnight lockdown (photo Philadelphia Inquirer – click the story link for more)

The first kNOw Tech-a-Thon, where Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Keystone State Boychoir teens gave up their technology for 24 hours, was held the weekend of September 20-21, 2014, with a highlight being an overnight, technology-free lock in at the Kimmel Center. The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the event in its Sunday, September 21 edition.

The story, including a photo gallery and details of the kNOw Tech-a-Thon, is online on the Philly.com website here.

WHYY’s Newsworks visited Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) at First Presbyterian Church in Germantown at the start of the new season in September, and tells about KSB, the choir’s fabulous Australia Tour 2014, and more.

See the story and watch the video on the Newsworks site here.

From the July 2, 2014 Town Topics, Princeton, NJ:

Princeton Festival is many things during its month-long season, including opera, jazz, and instrumental genres. Last Saturday night was the Festival’s chance to be choral, with a presentation of one of the region’s most successful youth choirs. The Keystone State Boychoir, based in Philadelphia, maintains a musical education and performance program for 190 boys (its sister Pennsylvania Girlchoir is equally as active), and 47 of these boys came to Princeton’s Trinity Church to perform a sampling of their core repertoire. Conductor Steven Fisher and accompanist Joseph Fitzmartin (also an arranger for the choir) led the trebles, tenors, and basses through an engaging program which thoroughly entertained the audience at Trinity.

Read the rest of the article on the Town Topics website…

“Here she comes…” Miss America Nina Davuluri was host for the Commonwealth Youthchoirs (CY) Gala on June 16, 2014 at Verizon Hall of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S. Broad St., Philadelphia.  The grand event honor the 90th birthday of Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem. In addition, the Pennsylvania Girlchoir celebrates their 10th anniversary. Prominent Philadelphia lawyer Ajay Raju and and his wife Pamela were Honorary Co-Chairs.

There was a very special surprise in store for Miss America when she was be treated to a “Bollywood” style performance to honor her heritage and recreate a portion of her personal talent performance from the pageant (singers from Keystone State Boychoir toured India in January with Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi). Additional select repetoire from the India tour also were part of the performance.

Highlights of the Gala also included the honor for Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer, who was celebrating his 90th birthday. While the composer was ill and not able to be physically at Verizon Hall, he was represented by his sister, who received the recognition in Rorem’s absence. In addition, Pennsylvania Girlchoir celebrated their 10th anniversary.

The concert featured more than 500 singers from all four of CY’s musical programs. In addition to Keystone State Boychoir and Pennsylvania Girlchoir – two distinguished ensembles with worldwide reputations, Find Your Instrument!, a music program at several Philadelphia public schools that otherwise would have no vocal music training and Good Mornin’ Music!, an early music education experience for children PreK through Grade 2, were also represented on stage.

CY was founded in 2001 by Joseph Fitzmartin and Steven Fisher as a non-profit organization to bring music to kids, ages 8-18, from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. The singers represent all five Pennsylvania counties in the greater Philadelphia region, as well as New Jersey and Delaware. They are ambassadors for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at home and abroad.

KSB and PG perform Jai Ho – with the Jai Ho dancers – while Miss America watches (left)

The choirs combine to perform at the 2014 Gala

Pennsylvania Girlchoir joined by PG alumni celebrate the choir’s 10th Anniversary singing their signature “Total Praise”

Ten new members of the Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) received their hard-earned green jackets on Mother’s Day, May 11, at their Spring Concert .

Nine of the new KSB jacket recipients after the Mother’s Day Concert

The boys worked hard over the last sixteen weeks to earn the coveted green jackets and were proud to don them for the first time during the concert with selections that both electrified and moved the audience.

The choir will tour in Australia this August, and recently returned from India. KSB is the only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents.  KSB brings together 180 boys, ages 8-18, under the direction of Joseph P. Fitzmartin and Steven M. Fisher. KSB has spread the gift of music far and wide. In 2009, KSB made history as the first choir to perform in Antarctica. In doing so, KSB became the first and only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents.Internationally, KSB has performed in the world’s major concert halls, including the Manaus Opera House in Brazil, the Petronas Philharmonik Hall in Malaysia, and the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam, as well as in venues throughout Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Monaco, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway. Major choral works that KSB has performed include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Britten’s St. Nicolas, and the Fauré Requiem. The Philadelphia Inquirer review declared KSB’s performance in the Bach St. Matthew Passion “excellent.” KSB made its Broadway debut in New York at The Shubert Theater in 2012. Also in 2012, KSB traveled to Norway and performed in a ceremony in Oslo for Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2013, KSB embarked on a concert tour of India accompanied by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. KSB has performed with Tony Award winners Norm Lewis and Brian Stokes Mitchell as well as with Carly Simon, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia. Today, KSB is counted among the finest, most successful community-based boychoir programs in the world.

From the March 27, 2014 Playbill.com:

Norm Lewis

Tony Award nominee Norm Lewis, who will star in the long-running musical The Phantom of the Opera, will play the title role in an industry reading of Mandela: A New Musical March 31.

Featuring a book, music and lyrics by Steven M. Fisher, the 3 PM reading will be directed by David Glenn Armstrong with music direction by Micah Young.

The cast also includes Tony Award nominee Forrest McClendon (The Scottsboro Boys), Rosena M. Hill Jackson (After Midnight, Spamalot),Darlesia Cearcy (The Book of Mormon, The Color Purple), John Henry Cox (Desire Under the Elms, Macbeth), Alan H. Green (Sister Act, Play On!), Aisha de Haas (Caroline or Change, Rent), Isaiah Johnson (Far From Heaven, Peter and the Starcatcher),Nehal Joshi (Les Misérables, Threepenny Opera), Jacob Ming-Trent(Hands on a Hardbody, Shrek), Paul O’Brien (On a Clear Day…, The Importance of Being Earnest), Ben Schrager (Roaring Company’scolumbinus), Michael Sharon (Folger’s Richard the Third, Long Wharf’s The Fantasticks) and Nick Wyman (Catch Me If You Can, A Tale of Two Cities).

The show will also include 60 members of the Keystone State Boychoir and Pennsylvania Girlchoir, who will bring the sounds of South Africa to the presentation.

Read the rest of the article on Playbill.com…

In hopes of bringing healing and solace to the Newtown, Connecticut community, the Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) performed in concert at the Trinity Episcopal Church on June 23, 2013. Six months after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 26 adults and children were shot down, KSB sang to honor the victims and help bring healing to the community. KSB joined the Connecticut Choral Society, the New Jersey Choral Society and the Choir of Historic St. Malachy’s Church in New York City. Some of the families who lost loved ones were in attendance.

KSB was invited to sing by conductor Eric Dale Knapp after the choir’ recent performance of John Rutter’s Mass of the Children at Carnegie Hall. The choir departed from Philadelphia on Friday, June 21, to begin their tour in New York City. The Newtown performance is part of KSB’s summer tour that also includes a major performance at the historic Actors’ Chapel at St. Malachy’s Church in Times Square in New York City to perform Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb there for choir and organ. The famous St. Malachy’s Church recently had a new pipe organ installed, and KSB’s performance is part of its inaugural season.

KSB’s concert in Newtown included selections of remembrance, peace and hope in addition to the Mass of the Children, including Kurt Bestor’s haunting Prayer of the Children. The shootings shattered the town and pierced the hearts of people throughout the world. The free concert was to help bring solace to the community there. Last summer, KSB traveled to Norway and performed for families who lost children in the 2011 summer camp mass shooting there.  As part of the Norway tour, KSB also performed in a ceremony in Oslo for Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

KSB has spread the gift of music far and wide and is the only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents. In 2009, KSB made history as the first choir to perform in Antarctica. Internationally, KSB has performed in the world’s major concert halls, including the Manaus Opera House in Brazil, the Petronas Philharmonik Hall in Malaysia, and the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam, as well as in venues throughout Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Monaco, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway.

For information about the Newtown concert go to http://www.ctchoralsociety.org.

Watch this video from Newtown, edited by Jeff Soffer:

Ready to Sing! Peace Concert, Hiroshima, Japan

Zach Crenshaw, age 13, was disappointed that he wouldn’t be doing anything exciting during his Spring Break from Germantown Friends School. Then he got a call from his choir director inviting him to travel to Japan during spring break and participate in a worldwide musical event for peace.

On April 1, 2013, musicians from the city of Hiroshima and musicians representing the five nuclear weapon states performed together and appealed for nuclear abolition at the “Concert for Peace in Hiroshima” at Aster Plaza in downtown Hiroshima. Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) was selected to send six members to represent the United States.

KSB members joined about 35 mainly younger musicians from Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China to perform in the concert. Also performing were about 100 musicians from Hiroshima. Concert organizer Yasuko Mitsui said, “I would like to convey our wish to leave a peaceful world for future generations”.

Ave Verum Corpus in Hiroshima

It is fitting that KSB was selected to represent the United States, as KSB is the only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents. In 2009, KSB made history as the first choir to perform in Antarctica. More recently, KSB sang at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway for Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi and presented her with a Liberty Bell. Internationally, KSB has performed in the world’s major concert halls, including the Manaus Opera House in Brazil, the Petronas Philharmonik Hall in Malaysia, and the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam, as well as in venues throughout Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Monaco, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway. Recently, KSB made its Broadway debut with Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell.

KSB brings together 175 boys, ages 8-18, under the direction of Joseph P. Fitzmartin and Steven M. Fisher. The Keystone State Boychoir encourages and welcomes boys of all experience levels to audition for the choir.

See more from the Hiroshima trip on the KSB Blog.

Twenty new Keystone State Boychoir (KSB) members felt the excitement and the honor last weekend as they donned their new green jackets, awarded on stage during the Harp the Herald Angels Sing holiday concert at Germantown Presbyterian Church last Sunday, January 3. The boys worked hard over the last sixteen weeks to earn their coveted jackets. They performed in their jackets for the first time and were aglow as they took the stage with fellow KSB members, choir directors and talented harpist and KSB alum Jordan Thomas, a Peabody Conservatory senior who accompanied the choir.

KSB is the only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents. In 2009, KSB made history as the first choir to perform in Antarctica. More recently, KSB sang at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway for Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi and presented her with a Liberty Bell. Internationally, KSB has performed in the world’s major concert halls, including the Manaus Opera House in Brazil, the Petronas Philharmonik Hall in Malaysia, and the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam, as well as in venues throughout Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Monaco, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway.

For information about KSB, call Lori Flynn at 215-287-7039 or visit the website at www.keystonestateboychoir.org. KSB brings together 170 boys, ages 8-18, under the direction of Joseph P. Fitzmartin and Steven M. Fisher. The Keystone State Boychoir encourages and welcomes boys of all experience levels to audition for the choir.