November 14, 2012

Boychoir Students Welcomed by Others After Lambert Drive Power Outage

BUSINESS AS USUAL: When Hurricane Sandy caused a power outage on Lambert Drive, American Boychoir School (ABS) Math Teacher Shawn Volz simply relocated with her class to a temporary space in Trinity Church. Along with the Church’s hospitality, ABS boarders were welcomed to stay in a number of area homes. (Photo by Lisa Eckstrom)

Did you hear the one about the American Boychoir School? Among the local stories about Sandy and the nor’easter that have emerged in recent days, it’s one of the nicest.

Although scheduled to move to the Princeton Center for Arts and Education (formerly St. Joseph’s Seminary) on Mapleton Road where it will join the Princeton French Academy and Wilberforce School, American Boychoir School (ABS) has remained at its old location on Lambert Drive while updates are being made to its future home. Unfortunately, Lambert Drive was among those Princeton neighborhoods that lost power for an extended period as a result of Sandy; no small hardship for a school where boarders outnumber day students, and a holiday season’s worth of concerts is quickly approaching.

“There were 12 students here when the storm hit,” recalled Assistant Head of School K.P. Weseloh. The subsequent return of a group of choristers who had been out touring almost tripled that number.

Thanks to Princeton’s Trinity Church, which offered classrooms, and to the good will of nearby students’ parents, grandparents, and other friends of the ABS community, all 32 boys were almost seamlessly housed, fed, and schooled — and well-rehearsed. With beautiful spaces at Trinity and Princeton Theological Seminary in which to practice, you could say that the boys didn’t miss a beat.

“If you like chaos, it’s fun,” observed Ms. Weseloh, who was among those providing care and shelter for boys last week. “They’re having a ball meeting new people, living in new spaces, and having new experiences.” The electricity on Lambert Drive returned this weekend, but until then, the boys were welcome to remain in their temporary homes as long as needed.

“If you ask someone to help, they’re more than willing to do it,” Ms. Weseloh reported. For host families, there was the “fun of hearing about the lives of boys who have perfect pitch and travel around the world to perform.”

The boys follow an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule, so breakfast and dinner were with their host families, while lunch was at the Church. Princeton Windrows, a retirement community located near the school’s future home in Plainsboro, also stepped up to the plate by offering to house the boys. With all the other volunteers coming forward, though, it wasn’t necessary.

Last Thursday, then, was what had become a routine day for ABS students in their new quarters. After a day of academics, members of the choir trooped into the chapel to learn new songs under the tutelage of Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, ABS’s Litton-Liddal music director. Addressing them as “gentlemen,” Mr. Malvar-Ruiz encouraged the boys to sit forward, corrected their pronunciation of Latin words, beckoned them to sing out, and to repeat certain passages. Already beautiful sounds (the boys know how to sight read) became even more beautiful.

The American Boychoir’s upcoming schedule includes a performance of music from Wozzeck, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra of London at Avery Fisher Hall, in Lincoln Center on Monday, November 19, at 8 p.m. On Thursday, November 29, at 6:30 p.m. they will perform The Christmas Rose with Jane Seymour and the Tim Janis ensemble in Carnegie Hall.

Closer to home, on December 7 at 7:30 p.m. the choir will appear in a concert of “Winter Wonders” at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton; in a program called “Voices of Angels” at the Princeton University Chapel on December 15 at 7:30 p.m.; and in the December 16 “Winter Wonderland Concert” at 4 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium on the Princeton University campus.

In the coming year, area residents will be welcome to hear free, open choir rehearsals once a month on Friday afternoons; check www.americanboychoir.org for updates.

The only non-sectarian boys’ choir school in the nation, American Boychoir School was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1937, and has been located in Princeton since 1950. Regarded by many as the United States’s premier concert boys’ choir, it includes boys in grades four through eight, with students from across the country and around the world.


August 8, 2012

New Jersey State Council on the Arts Approves Over $1.5 Million in Grants

Mercer County arts institutions have won over $1.5 million of this year’s New Jersey State Council on the Arts total gift of $15.7 million to organizations throughout the state.

Among the highest area award-winners are the American Boychoir School ($147,120); the Arts council of Princeton ($46,158); McCarter Theatre ($626,820); People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos ($15,248); Princeton Pro Musica ($14,647); and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra ($45,592).

“I’m very moved by the State of New Jersey’s generous funding of so many arts organizations across the state,” said People & Stories Executive Director Pat Andres. “This signals the state’s appreciation of the benefits of the arts for residents of all ages. It also demonstrates sound fiscal sense, because the arts really generate income.”

“The American Boychoir School is highly honored by this funding and recognition,” commented president and CEO Dean Ornton. He also expressed the school’s pleasure at being among a “wonderful peer group” of winners, which includes nearly 800 arts organizations, projects, and individuals statewide.

According to a recent study by Dun & Bradstreet on arts and economic prosperity, New Jersey is home to more than 25,000 arts-related businesses. “This study supports what New Jersey already knows; that a vibrant arts and cultural sector are crucial in developing a prepared workforce, attracting and retaining businesses, and fostering the creative thinking and innovation that will keep us competitive for years to come,” said Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno when the awards were announced.

The New Jersey State Arts Council describes its mission as “enabling the cultural community of New Jersey to create those public values for the benefit of all New Jerseyans, both those that are intrinsic and those that are instrumental such as fostering quality education, stimulating economic development, bolstering tourism and building New Jersey pride.” The Council receives funding in direct appropriations from the State of New Jersey through a dedicated hotel and motel occupancy fee, and through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In addition to financial awards, the Arts Council of Princeton, McCarter Theatre, and People & Stories received “citations of excellence,” and the American Boychoir School, McCarter, and Princeton Symphony Orchestra each received a “designation of significant impact” from the state.

The awards are given, for the most part for the “general support” of an organization’s operations, and this, said Ms. Andres is a particularly “wonderful” thing.

“It’s harder to garner than program support, but you can’t offer the programs unless your general operating support is in place,” she explained. “It’s a sound philanthropic approach that ultimately supports programs by supporting the infrastructure of the organization.”

Ms. Andres said that she was also heartened by the evidence of the state’s “core belief in the power of the humanities and arts.” While many may acknowledge the intrinsic value of the arts, she added, arts budgets are often the first to be cut during challenging times.

This is the fourth consecutive year that People & Stories has won a grant; for the American Boychoir School “it’s been a wonderful 25 years of support that we’ve enjoyed,” reported Mr. Orton. The gift “allows for us to tool around the country as ambassadors of New Jersey. It’s vital to our operation; I can’t say thank you enough.”

Criteria used by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in awarding its annual grants include high artistic quality in pursuit of a mission that provides/creates public benefit and value; significant public benefit and broad accessibility based on sound understanding of who is/will be served that is clear, measured, and documented; sound governance, management and operations based on sound strategic planning; fiscal soundness and accountability with evidence of broad and diverse financial support; and commitment to arts education and to providing opportunities for meaningful arts learning.


January 18, 2012

President of American Boychoir School Says New Campus Will Allow for Expansion

AmericanBoychoir

A NEW VENUE: Students of the American Boychoir School (ABS) have been rehearsing in the chapel on the campus of their new home, the Princeton Center for Arts & Education, at the 47-acre former St. Joseph’s Seminary. Future plans for the school include public performances in the chapel. The Boychoir, set to move in completely by next fall, is sharing the campus with the Wilberforce School and the French-American School of Princeton. ABS will hold an open house at its current location on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

By the time school starts next September, students of the American Boychoir School (ABS) are scheduled to be settled into their new home at the Princeton Center for Arts & Education (PCAE), a 47-acre expanse on Mapleton Road that was formerly home to St. Joseph’s Seminary. The move from its current headquarters at the Albemarle mansion several miles south means that the celebrated choral academy will be able to substantially increase its programs, scope, student body, and accessibility to the public.

While the 18-acre, 18-bedroom Albemarle is currently on the market for $5.9 million, the new President and CEO of the Boychoir School says the move to the new campus doesn’t depend upon the sale. “There has been a series of interested parties, and there are ongoing negotiations with various parties,” said Dean Orton, who took on his new role as head of ABS and the PCAE on January 1. “But we still have ideas about what will happen if we don’t sell. We would love the right terms and the right offer, but if we aren’t able to get it, we have other options.”

The school is currently operating out of both campuses. An open house on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, at the Albemarle campus on Lambert Drive, will include auditions for boys in grades 3-7. The goal is to have all of the ABS students who board moved into the new location in time for the next school year. But some activities will continue at Albemarle as long as it remains unsold, Mr. Orton said.

In the meantime, Mr. Orton, who came to ABS from his job as senior vice president of Media Services and chief development officer for Connecticut Public Broadcasting, is busy focusing on the opportunities that the new campus will allow. In addition to a gym, ample green space for recreation, and room for the current enrollment of 51 to rise to more than 80, there is the chapel, which can seat about 400.

“It’s gorgeous, and it has wonderful acoustics,” Mr. Orton said. “The idea of having our own performance venue, where the public can come to hear concerts, is very exciting. We will look to record there, too. We have already done some audio and acoustic testing. And if all goes well, we will even look to doing some television there. We want to go beyond just audio recordings at some point.”

Adding television would be a natural for Mr. Orton, who has spent his career in public media. The 40-year-old Minnesota native began his career at a small station in a rural area of the state, getting into senior management and moving on to bigger and bigger markets with an emphasis on fundraising. In Connecticut, he led a team of 60 in the areas of content, network operations, development, and community engagement. He was instrumental in the creation of a new journalism school for middle-and-high-school students in Hartford.

“Public media is not for the faint of heart,” he said. “There is a constant stream of change, and you have to work your way through that. But I love the arts and education. That’s what kept me in public media.”

Mr. Orton was selected after a nationwide search assisted by the Catherine French Group of Washington, D.C., a major arts -leadership search firm. He is currently living in Plainsboro with his wife and three small children. The family will move to the PCAE campus when renovations are complete.

ABS will share some resources with the two other schools on the campus, both of which have already relocated to the new site. While the schools will maintain their separate identities, they will collaborate when possible.

“The overall concept for the facility is that if there is any way to share resources and become more efficient, we will,” Mr. Orton said. “We have a shared interest in arts and education, and the question is, how can we best collaborate? None of us could have done this on our own. But with all three schools, we have created something special.”

The American Boychoir was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1937 and relocated to Princeton in 1950. Boys in grades 4-8 attend the school, and 60 percent are boarders. They come from 18 states and three countries. Under the leadership of Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, the choir follows a rigorous touring schedule and has appeared with such ensembles as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The choir has also performed with such notable musicians as Sir Paul McCartney, Jessye Norman, Wynton Marsalis, and Beyonce.

On the new campus, renovations and construction are continuing. “With all of this new space, there is a lot of expectation ahead of us,” Mr. Orton said. “We want to be more visible in the community. We want to actually be a destination where people can come to enjoy the arts, maybe celebrating the arts in some sort of annual event. We have a lot to look forward to, but we will always remain committed to the Boychoir and the education we’ve provided for nearly 75 years.”

For information about Saturday’s open house, visit www.americanboychoir.org.