Season Highlights, 2004-2005
2005 Spring Concert
Fifteen boys joined by world-acclaimed soloist Darryl Taylor and the Ensemble Toki performed the choir’s spring concert on Sunday, April 17th to a full house at the newly restored St. Edward the Martyr Church on East 109th Street.
Performing at the 2005 Spring Concert
An important feature of the concert was performance of a mass composed by Alexandra Ottaway in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Tomoko Kawamukai, the choir’s accompanist and administrative assistant, scored the arrangement for cello, flute, and keyboard as well as choir and tenor solo. Its text combines elements of the Roman Catholic mass with original lyrics, creating a tonal, folk-like affect. Ms. Ottaway was present at the performance.
The program opened with the boys singing “Amani utupe,” (Grant us strength; give us courage) sung in Swahili and English. This was followed by Ensemble Toki’s flutist Kaoki Shankai and pianist Tomoko Kawamukai’s performance of Reverie Petite Valse by A. Caplet. The audience of new and old NABC families, funders, friends and a number of the boys’ school teachers joined the choir in singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” “Down by the Riverside,” and “This Land is Your Land.”
This is the third straight year the choir has performed its annual concert at the church, which also provides its practice space.
June Camping Trip
Fourteen of the choir’s members enjoyed a week-end of camping, water sports, basketball and got an introduction to the game of cricket last June at the Holmes Presbyterian Center, fifty-five miles north of New York in the Lower Hudson Valley. This long-anticipated trip was a great way to end the choir’s season.
NABC performing Sunday morning at First Presbyterian Church of Paterson NY
On Friday afternoon, the boys boarded a Metro North train with escorts Sally Cleaver and Beth Wood, both members of the choir’s board. They enjoyed their interchange with some very serious-looking commuters before arriving at Patterson where they were met by members of the First Presbyterian Church of Patterson, who drove them to the campground. The trip was sponsored by Manhattan’s Central Presbyterian Church with the special help of the Reverend Douglass Grandgeorge, whom the choir would like to thank.
The camp’s spacious grounds featured long, winding roads between the cabins and the dining hall, which provided an opportunity to get plenty of exercise. In between rehearsals and meals, the older boys played basketball, while Campbell Pryde introduced the younger members, Mr. Backmon and his daughter, Jamie-Leigh, to cricket. On Saturday, there was time to enjoy the camp’s lake and its paddle boats and row boats. And at night there were campfires with marshmallow-roasting, stories, jokes and songs. Chorister Donald Mapson’s family joined the group for the Saturday night campfire.
Sunday morning, the boys attended the Patterson church, where they performed and met its music director, Irene Wood, and pastor, Genaro Marin. They mingled during coffee hour with members of the congregation while they enjoyed pastries, cake and juice. All returned to the city tired and content and looking forward to summer vacation.
