Anyone who thinks a boys choir is just a group of youngsters whose voices haven’t changed yet will have a chance to disabuse his- or herself of that notion this week, when the Phoenix Boys Choir performs at Stauffer Chapel at Pepperdine University.
A 2000 Grammy winner for Best Chorale Performance, the Phoenix Boys Choir has been touring internationally and entertaining audiences, including four U.S. presidents, since 1948.
In its current incarnation, the Town Choir (the company is divided into training, cadet, town and tour choirs before reaching Master Choir status) is led by Director Greg Amerind, the son of Dr. James Wilburn, dean of Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy.
“As a performing organization, we seek first to educate these boys from ear-training and reading music to vocal technique,” Amerind said in a phone interview with The Malibu Times. “The fact that there is such a unique quality to boys’ voices brings a special draw to their choral performances. Audiences will enjoy our traditional classical music, as much as some of our contemporary arrangements.”
Those contemporary arrangements include an eclectic array of pop tunes like “Route 66” and “Over the Rainbow,” and “Who Will Buy” from the musical “Oliver!”
Amerind never sang with a choir, though he grew up in West Los Angeles singing in a duo with his sister and “got serious” about music in high school.
“I attended Cal State Northridge, then UCLA, before I dropped out to pursue a professional career as a studio singer,” Amerind said. “It wasn’t until I got an education degree from Arizona State that I considered working with the Phoenix Boys Choir.”
As director of the Town Choir and assistant artistic director of the organization overall, Amerind has been responsible for shepherding his young charges around the country, directing performances of sacred music that has filled the halls of some of the country’s most prestigious venues.
The choir has also performed with entertainers like Doc Severinsen, Stevie Wonder and the Boston Pops Orchestra. In 2001, the choir was named cultural ambassadors to the European Union and has won numerous prizes at competitions throughout the world.
Since 1999, the company has been under the baton of Artistic Director Georg Stangelberger, formerly deputy artistic director of the Vienna Boys Choir.
“Boys choirs have been around since way back when chorale music was first a part of sacred worship,” Amerind said. “We have about 250 boys from seven to 14 years old in the program. Once their voices change, though, they’ve graduated. We call it voicing out.”
Today, there are several notable boys choirs around the world, though the Vienna Boys Choir is probably the most well known. That choir was established during the 15th century by Austrian Emperor Maximilian I of Hapsburg, who instructed his court music director to establish a choir of six boys to perform exclusively for the court’s state occasions.
Amerind, who arranges some of the choir’s music himself, said the idea of the touring program is to show the versatility of a boys choir, beyond the “church music.”
“After all, these are kids,” he said. “We want to show that it’s as much fun to do contemporary music such as Hayden and Bach.”
The Phoenix Boys Choir will perform Saturday, May 16, 7:30 p.m., at Pepperdine’s Stauffer Chapel. Entrance is free. More information can be obtained online at www.phoenixboyschoir.org or by calling 602.264.5328.