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.
