Friday, July 26, 2013

I finally saw the Chester Children's Chorus


Chester is fortunate to have John Alston shine his star on our city. What he can produce with 150 Chester kids without screaming, kicking, and hollering is a true work of art. And, what the children produce under his direction is a literal work of art.

This weekend, the Chester Children’s Chorus is staging their Summer Concert at the Lang Performing Arts Center on the idyllic Swarthmore College campus. The 90 minute concert features kids from 3rd to 12th grades performing classical, gospel, and original songs, along with an amazing nine song tribute to Stevie Wonder. 

My guess is that the Lang has about 400 seats and very few of them were empty for the Friday performance. The concert attracts Swarthmore locals, university folks, chorus member’s family and friends, and the curious, which results in an extremely diverse crowd of all ages. 

I found the concert enjoyable and entertaining. The performance flowed well from song to song, genre to genre. In a sense, there was nothing that overwhelmed me in the performance, yet, there was not a single disappointing moment either. 

It’s not hard to appreciate the hours of rehearsal that it takes to do a concert with so much musical complexity, especially with children. They pulled it off flawlessly.

HOWEVER, I may have had the worse seat in the house. I was surrounded by The Loud Family. Between the young kids talking through the entire concert and the adults with them behaving as though the concert was background music to their conversation, and the baby screaming and kicking me in the back of the chair, and the adults singing along - all out of tune - to Hallelujah and a couple Stevie songs, I finally snapped and had to get up and leave. I stood through half of the last set near the door. 

You can take some folks out the ‘hood, but you can’t take the ‘hood out of them. Lawd!

9 comments:

  1. this is bee-you-tee-full! our children need to understand the discipline, dedication and commitment necessary to become better at their art. this is a welcome relief from the seemingly normal onslaught of "the miseducation of the negroes in chester" "who got shot" today, and the shenanigans of the cusd. what a great story! perhaps you can share an interview with mr. alston, and what it takes to keep his artistic dream going. it certainly ain't free. glad to call you my friend, mr. roots. emcduffy

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    1. Thank you Mr. McDuffy.

      If you say I should do an interview with Mr. Altson, then I'll see what we can do.

      Maybe his people will contact my people after reading this post and he'll agree to meet.

      ('Miseducation of the negroes'...'shenanigans'? I wish you were here so we could join forces. I'm tired of working alone)

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    2. "his people"..."my people". HA! believe me, i get the idea of the bootstrap operation. mr. roots, you are a welcome relief from the norm. btw, i've got an idea that transcends geographics. going to cameron's bball chip game today. i'll call, and we'll discuss. there is a LOT of opportunity at the pre-high school level for those who can sell this idea. we'll speak soon. emcduffy p.s. how do i make it so i can post as "myself", instead of anonymously

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    3. Great chat tonight. It's amazing how we're on the same 'thing' at the same time.

      As far as this blog format is concerned, it sucks. If I had the time, or some help, we'd flip this to a Wordpress site which has extremely better usability features, including those for comments. For now, be anonymous, or, I think there's an option to create a name for yourself. I know it ain't pretty but it's easy for me, and we all know how lazy I am.

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  2. My daughter was a member of the chorus many years ago - John Alston is a true professional whose love of music shows in the shining faces of the kids at the concerts!

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    1. I've only met Mr. Alston on one brief occasion so I know little about him.

      He obviously has some extra mojo besides a love of music to get the kids to respond as well as they do.

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  3. His love of mucin began as a member of the Harlem Boys Choir and you can often catch him riding his bike through Chester Park :)

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    1. I know you meant 'his love of music'.

      Harlem Boys Choir, huh? I've got some pics of them from my time in NYC back in 99 to 02. I know they're on 3.5" foppies somewhere around here.

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  4. Sorry for the typo-small phone + old eyes you know. Here is John's bio. I was mistaken though-it was the Newark Boys Chorus-not the Harlem Boys Choir. My apologies! http://www.swarthmore.edu/news-and-events/sources-and-experts/john-alston.xml

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