By Alliance President Terry Gips
We’re not just featuring a song this time but the livestream of an entire concert, All Belong Here. With a theme that resonates now more than ever, the repertoire for the Minnesota Boychoir’s Annual Spring Concert is filled with songs of grief, hope, love, empowerment, identity, joy and unity from around the world – reminding us that we each matter and are worthy. We can make a difference and together we can transform our world.
This May 31 concert was livestreamed at the University of Minnesota’s Ted Mann Concert Hall, just before they left for their triumphal two-week tour of South Africa. All three of my sons have been in the Boychoir from ages 6 to 18, so I’ve seen more than 100 concerts over a decade and a half, from Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
But this was my favorite, as it was the most moving one for me. My 14-year-old son Aaron said I always say that but I know I’m right about this because I cried a record 9 times. I hope you’ll feel that beautiful energy and also be touched and uplifted during these troubled times.
Sing When In Doubt, Have Hope and Listen to the Voices of Children
It opens with Abraham Piper’s “When in Doubt, Sing Loud,” with original music by the Boychoir’s fabulous pianist Todd Price. It is followed by the moving “Hope Lingers On and Do All the Good” by John Wesley with Price’s music.
The youngest choir then sings the sweet Firefly and This Little Light of Mine. Then onto to two Spanish songs from the next youngest choir, Kuku Ue about Simba and Oye by Jim Papoulis,
All alone, in the darkness
They are crying out for your help
They are hoping, they are dreaming
They are asking for a chance to be heard.
Are you listening, can you hear their cries.
From Some Scat to Pinkzebra’s We Won’t Stop Dreaming
The two youngest choirs, Cantar and Cantando then sing I Like to Sing (Scat) and Pinkzebra’s tear-jerking We Won’t Stop Dreaming:
Here we are, living in the moment.
Here we are, dreaming in the open.
Look around. Isn’t this a new day?
Make a move. Doing things a new way.
‘Cause this is our world.
And this is our time.
These are our plans.
We’re gonna let ‘em shine.
And this is our place in the human race.
And we won’t stop dreaming.
No we won’t stop dreaming.
The Voices of Angels, Desmond Tutu’s Song for Everyone and Does the World Say
The middle school Cantabile choir sings Panis Angelicus in Latin, “The bread of angels becomes the bread of humankind” and Desmond Tutu’s “Song for Everyone (There Are No Outsiders)” with music by Steve Heitzig.
They went on to sing another major tear jerker that hits way too close to home, “Does the World Say” by Kyle Pederson:
Does the world say that you don’t look the right way?
Does the world say that you’re just not enough?
Does the world say that this isn’t the right spot?
When it wants you there but not here and tells you all the things you are not.
I’ve been there, too.
It’s hard to shut my ears to the noise.
I don’t stand a chance if it’s me in this world alone.
The chatter is deafening, too overwhelming, hard to find my way home.
So take my hand…don’t let go.
Dance! and Revelations to Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now and Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend
Robert T. Gibson’s fun and upbeat “Dance!” is followed by the majesty of “Revelations”, which is sung by the high school choir Allegro, Cantabile, the Adult Choir (yes, you can join them) and Alumsing (reuniting past Boychoir members).
The Adult Choir’s renditions of two unforgettable anthems, Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” (arranged by Todd Price), took on new meanings with lots of tears.
Taking on Satan and I Can’t Spare Your Pain
Allegro sang the rousing “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight” using the Cantus arrangement of Bob Gibson, Alex Hassilev and Glen Yarborough’s song about taking on Satan. They followed with the deep love and pathos of “I Will” by Mary Carpenter:
If I could spare you from all the pain, I would.
If I could keep away the rain, I would.
If I could banish every bane, I would,
I would, I would.
I love you like the summer sky, I do.
I love you through the winter’s cry, I do.
I love you when the new spring sighs, I do, I do, I do.
But I can’t spare your pain, or keep away the rain.
Love’s not meant to be a cure for what the soul endures.
I’ll let you walk into night, I will.
I’ll watch you find your way to light, I will.
I’ll hold you when your soul takes flight, I will, I will, I will.
Pinkzebra Returns with Fly Away Home and Sting’s Fields of Gold
Allegro is joined by Alumsing in Pinkzebra’s equally heart-wrenching “Fly Away Home”:
Well life is a vision.
That’s how it should be.
The world is a canvas.
And the choices are free.
At the end of the journey,
When all is complete,
They’ll all wonder where I’ve gone.
But you know where I’ll be.
I’ll fly away home.
Our dreams last forever,
For all that we know.
The roads come together,
And that’s where we’ll go.
We’ll fly away home.
They join together for the traditional spiritual “Walk in Jerusalem”. Allegro and Cantabile sing “Fields of Gold”, which has always made me cry since I first heard Sting sing it.
Good Crying Music: For the Sake of Our Children, For Good and Holding the Light
They kept the tears flowing with “For the Sake of Our Children” by Jeffrey L. Ames and “For Good” by Stephen Schwartz:
I’ve heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason,
Bringing something we must learn;
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow if we let them.
And we help them in return.
Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true;
But I know I’m who I am today because I knew you.
But they held one last massive chance to cry and create a new world in “Holding the Light” by Stuart Kastenbaum with music by Brittney F. Boykin:
Gather up whatever is glittering in the gutter,
Whatever has tumbled in the waves or fallen in flames out of the sky.
For it’s not only our hearts that are broken,
But the heart of the world as well.
Stitch it back together.
Make a place where the day speaks to the night
And the earth speaks to the sky.
Whether we created God or God created us
Holding the light.
It all comes down to this:
In our imperfect world we are meant to repair
And stitch together what beauty there is, stitch it
With compassion and wire.
See how everything we have made gathers
The light inside itself
And overflows? A blessing.
The Irish Blessing: May the Road Rise Up to Meet You
And as always, all the choirs join together in singing the traditional Irish poem “Blessing with music” by Katie Moran Bart:
May the road rise up to meet you;
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon your fields.
Until we meet again, my friend,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
May it be so.