Keystone State Boychoir

Commonwealth Youthchoirs’ programs, including Garden State Girlchoir, Keystone State Girlchoir, Pennsylvania Girlchoir, New Jersey Boychoir and Find Your Instrument!, were part of the performances at the 2019 Chorus America Conference in Philadelphia June 26-29. The 2019 Conference featured performances showcasing Philadelphia’s diverse choral community – also celebrated in the Philly Sings! video that premiered the first day of the Conference. CY singers were some of the featured Philly community. Watch Philly Sings!:

6ABC Action News was at PHL International Terminal to cover the return of the Keystone State Boychoir/New Jersey Boychoir Poland-Lithuania 2019 Tour. Watch the report:

Holiday Concert on the Square

Sunday, December 17, 2017 | 5:00 pm

Featuring Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols and 
Jason Robert Brown’s Chanukah Suite

Church of the Holy Trinity
Rittenhouse Square, 19th and Walnut Streets | Philadelphia

Tickets on sale now through the Online Box Office

 

Tickets on sale now! Join Keystone State Boychoir for this year’s Holiday Concerts!  Two performances available:

Sunday, December 10, 2017 | 3:00 pm Concert | purchase tickets for the 3:00 pm performance

6:00 pm Concert – SOLD OUT!

Sunday, December 10, 2017 | 6:00 pm Candlelight Concert | purchase tickets for the 6:00 pm performance

purchase tickets online until 11:00 am Sunday, then at the door…

Both concerts at First Presbyterian Church in Germantown | 35 West Chelten Avenue | Philadelphia, PA 19144

From the latest CY Sampler:

All three major TV stations were on hand to help welcome Keystone State Boychoir and special guest Inge Auerbacher back from the 2017 tour to Germany and the Czech Republic. Take a look at this coverage by CBS3 Eyewitness News.

Here is NBC10’s coverage:

Andrew P., a newly graduated KSB member, reflects,”My recent KSB concert tour to Germany and the Czech Republic was a powerful experience. Traveling with Inge and hearing her story firsthand gave me a more meaningful understanding of the Holocaust than anything I’ve learned in school, and I deeply appreciated her message of hope for the future.”

There’s a photo album on the KSB Facebook Page – take a look!

The boys are off with Martha and the chaps enjoying a well deserved day at a water park outside of Prague.  I stayed back to blog – hardly a minute to write when you’re singing with, and keeping safe and sound, 59 boys.

Speaking of the boys, they have done a noble job of absorbing a lot of very heavy subject matter on the Holocaust and specifically, Terezin.  While we’ve attempted to moderate the information flow based on age, and certainly the boys have been well prepared to handle the topic gradually over time, there’s no way around it – this is heavy stuff for any age, let alone young people. They more than deserve a day off to just be boys on a careless summer day.  What better way to achieve that than Europe’s largest water park?

Yesterday we had the great honor of being guided around Terezin with Inge.  Everywhere we walked, we were regaled with stories of her time there – filled with hardship and tragedy, though she pointed out that there was always hope.  As Stephen Schwartz wrote in the song “When You Believe”, though hope is frail it’s hard to kill.  Inge commented to me at one point that “she doesn’t know why she’s here, why she made it.” The odds of survival were so low (out of 15,000 children, 100 survived), and fate was so random with no rhyme or reason.  And yet, yesterday, it was clear to me why Inge made it – to charge 59 American boys in a most profound way that they are now her ambassadors, to pass onto the next generation the warning of what can happen when hate prevails.

There were many incredible moments yesterday. Some highlights:

-when we arrived at Terezin, Inge had us hold hands, commenting that if people had always held hands, there might not be a Terezin Museum

 

-taking a photo with Inge under the “Arbeit Macht Frei” entrance

-standing in a small, one room living quarter for 90, realizing that the number of people who were forced to live there was the same as all of our boys, chaperones, staff plus 16 more people.  one toilet. wooden bunks. #incomprehensible

-seeing the cell where the assassin who started World War I was imprisoned. (our history buffs were blissed out)

-walking through the extensive tunnels that are part of the Terezin fortress walls. #boyheaven

-having the KSB Vedem boys perform Vedem poems in the very room where the Vedem boys lived and published their magazine. #surreal

-having Immanuel perform a late Brahams piano piece in the attic of the Magdeburg Barracks, where many of the musical performances that took place in Terezin were rehearsed, often in secret – Verdi’s Requiem, Bizet’s Carmen, Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Krasa’s Brundibar.  Normally the attic is off limits to tourists but we had a VIP among us – Inge! It was amazing to add our music to that space – with music from past years that represented hope to so many – including many children.  Inge added that never in a million years would the Terzin kids, who felt like the world had forgotten them, could have imagined that a bunch of American boys would return there to do just that – remember them.

-the Grads singing Oseh Shalom at the Terezin moratorium and crematorium. (over 50,000 Jews died in Terezin itself, and another 90,000 perished after being transported out of Terezin to camps East)

It was incredibly touching to see the boys instinctively take care of Inge throughout the day.  They freely offered her hugs.  Without instruction, they would take her hand, or her arm, and walk with her along the cobbled streets of Terezin. They would ask if she was okay.  They would put her arm around her when she would cry a bit, perhaps when she would remember a friend who didn’t make it.  And sometimes the boy showing Inge the most tenderness was the boy none of us would guess had the capacity to do so.  And that is the beauty of tour – it can bring out the very best in the boys.  #growth

Know that all of your boys are okay, and that, whatever loss of innocence has resulted in their journey, they are forever changed by this experience in ways that are important to our world today, where hate continues to prevail.  The ways in which Terezin and knowing (and loving) Inge will inform their lives, will mostly be subtle, but they will be profound and vital.  The ways that it has transformed their lives is real and permanent and invaluable.

And at the end of the day, Inge was happy to have dessert, as were the boys, and in the great tradition of KSB tours, there were Magnum bars for one and all, and so we continue on the road together.

More later…

On Friday night we had our first full concert, a joint program with the Heidelberg Youth Choir, at the Heidelberg Music School.  The performance opened with hundreds of American and German young people singing South African welcome songs, led by Tabong, South African artist in residence at the school.   It was great fun to see his reaction as our boys absorbed the pieces so quickly – ones they had never heard before.  Fast forward to the end of concert, when KSB surprised Tabong with our South African medley.  How he beamed!  He was truly astounded.  He joined in with all of them even though he didn’t know our songs.  Of course he did!  That is the South African way! That is UBUNTU!  He told me afterwards that hearing our boys sing brought him home to South Africa. We plan to collaborate next year in South Africa.

The other highlight of the concert was when Alexander Minch joined us for some standard rep pieces. Now a grown man working for Lufthansa, Alex also beamed  as he “came home again” to sing with KSB.  He and his brother Konstantin sang with us for many years.  A million thanks to his mother Angela Wende, who did so much planning to make this tour a success.  She is serving as our Tour Manager, with us every step of the way.  ANGELA,WIER LIEBEN EUCH!

Yesterday, Saturday we travelled to Stuttgart to perform with the Hymnus Boychoir of Stuttgart.  They hosted us for a concert back in 2008 on our first tour to Germany. We then hosted them in 2014 in Philadelphia, and so this is a growing friendship that both choirs treasure. They took such good care of our boys – especially the Hymnus choir moms who made sure our boys had plenty to eat at every turn.  Some things are universal!  A good opportunity to thank all of our parent volunteers for all they do for KSB – back at home and abroad. We have an amazing group of chaperones who are taking such good care of us.   To Jachai May, Linda Deis, Chris Day, Lori Flynn, Sarah Foster, Aimee Hydock, Susan Klein, Sarah McMenamin, Chris Simcox and Tom Wamser…VIELEN DANK!

Today, Sunday, we will perform in surely one of the most beautiful, unique venues in KSB’s history.  More later on that, as well as our truly profound experience yesterday with Inge visiting the railway platform from which she departed for Terezin.  The opportunity we had to share this sacred place with Inge is something that will stay with all of us for our whole lives.

Hello from Germany!

We have completed our second full day of tour and all is well.  It takes a few days to “get the wheels on the bus.”  Jet leg to get over.  Extreme heat to deal with.  Lots of protocols and tour rules to follow. Grace period is now over and fines will begin tomorrow.  We’ll start at 1 Euro.  Fines amounts for infractions will increase as the tour goes on.  The reality is, hitting their spending money is the fastest way to get their attention.  And following the rules of tour is not just about order.  It is vital to keeping the boys safe and sound.  And of course, the boys always have the opportunity to earn their money back.  With stand out performance faces, offering a kind word or performing a random act of tour kindness…

Our itinerary has been quite full with singing and cultural opportunities. A full schedule is crucial for happy boys free from homesickeness.  They need to stay busy and to fall into bed tired.

And of course the homestay experience is a great gift.  The chance to live as other cultures live is invaluable and will shape the boys, giving them a global, open, tolerant perspective as they move through their lives.  Look for photos of your boys and their homestays soon.

Tomorrow, Friday, is our first full concert – joint with our hosts, the Heidelberg Youth  Choir.  Up until now it’s been schools concerts (very well received) and mayoral meet and greets.  Germany loves its mayors!  #rathouse.

And can I tell you how INCREDIBLE it is travelling with Inge.  She is AWESOME. She is always POSITIVE and HAPPY. A great lesson for all of us, considering what she’s been through.  What a great gift to me.  When the boys are complaining that “it sucks” that they didn’t get to have ice cream, I simply invite them to sit with Inge and have her tell them how much “it sucked” to go to Terezin.   Inge also has an amazing sense of humor and remarkable perspective about her journey – and a great capacity to forgive and see the good in people.

The boys are able to sit with Inge during bus rides – we always keep her seat empty for visitors.   They can ask her questions that come up as they’re reading her very famous book “I Am A Star.”  Once they finish the book, she rewards them with a book signing.  And then they get the privilege of holding the Star of David she wore in Terezin.  I have told the boys that THIS is their college essay.  To travel with a Survivor, literally following her journey from Germany to Terezin.  Wow.

Most lovely of all, Inge trades in hugs.  That’s all she asks in return for sharing her story.  And the boys freely give them.

#sweet

#powerful

#IngeHugs

More later…

KSB takes to the road on Tuesday, June 20 for a 15 night/16 day tour of Germany and the Czech Republic. The boys will be visiting and singing in Mannheim, Heidelberg, Mosbach, Stuttgart, Schwetzingen, Nuremberg, Prague, Terezin, and Frankfurt, including a sold-out Grand Concert at Rokokotheatre Schwetzingen Palace! Follow the tour on the KSB Tour page or the see the latest blog posts and itinerary on the Germany/Czech Republic tour page! And receive notifications of new Blog posts by subscribing to KSBlog – sign up to the right on the KSBlog page.

If you were not at the “KSB Remembers the Holocaust” Concert last night, you missed something very profound.  We hope to do it again next year, so don’t miss it!  The days when we have the honor of being in the presence of survivors are numbered.  Your sons’ children will not have the opportunity to meet someone who endured the unthinkable.

I want to share something that happened after the performance. Following the concert, the boys got a priceless opportunity to sit at round tables and get to know one of our 11 new friends, all “hero” survivors. I was a table with Manya Frydman Perel – and she stole my heart.  She was born in Poland in 1924 and was sent to live in the Radom ghetto, and then subsequently five different concentration camps – the last being Auschwitz. In 1945 she was on a death march from Auschwitz when she and a friend escaped into the woods. They were later found by Russian soldiers.

Manya told the boys at the table and I that 80 years later, she still has trouble sleeping because of  nightmares. When she was rescued, she was a skeleton, but could not swallow, and therefore still could not eat right away.  She said to this day, she saves a “little bit of bread” on her dinner plate and freezes it, fearful that one day she may not have food to eat again.

When the boys left, Manya took my hands in hers, and proceeded to sing “Ani’Ma Amin,” a song she remembered singing in Auschwitz.  Its significance in the history of the Jewish people, and especially during the Holocaust, is deeply moving, haunting, and ultimately hopeful.  The boys sang a simple but stunning arrangement of it last night as part of the program. Mayna told me the boys made her so happy when they sang it that she will be, in her words, “happy now until the day I die.” May that not be anytime soon!

Along with remembering the Holocaust, we should also remember the power of KSB to bring healing and happiness to people – including people who have endured the worst of human behavior.  Be proud KSB parents and boys that we represent the very best of what humankind can do in the world.  And so, all of the rehearsing, travelling, trouble is indeed worth it.  How do we know.  We know because of Manya.  Take a moment and contemplate her life, and her words: “happy now until the day I die.”

Shalom indeed.