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The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 275

Location:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Issue Date:
Page:
275
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

By HUGH SCOTT Of The Inquirer Staff 1 cLoir i 11 I 7S Youngest member of the Ensemble is William Hickman. 10. rC. "'N 3 fJs 'Sj2- WW THE boys pictured on these pages belong to a very select group. All are members of the Ensemble of the All-Philadelphia Elementary School Boys Choir, and all, therefore, have battled something like 170-to-one odds to earn a place in this singing group.

The odds are easily explained. Each year some 10,000 students from Philadelphia's elementary schools, age 10 to 14, are auditioned for the Boys Choir. From these, about 300 are selected for the choir, and from the choir only 60 carefully screened singers get into the Ensemble. One result of this selectivity, plus careful training, is a singing group that is gaining an international name. Last year the Ensemble was chosen to sing at Expo '67.

This summer the boys will travel to Wales to show the people of that melodic country how youngsters do it here. Their main efforts will be heard at the Eisteddfodd Folk Festival at Llan- $23,000, less than half of which will be paid by the parents of the boys. Under the original arrangement, each parent would have paid $250 for the boy's trip. Now, due largely to the efforts of the boys and the Parents and Alumni Association of the choir, this has been reduced to $220. The Association, with a lot of help from the Ensemble singers, has held a whole series of benefits, from card parties to candy selling, to raise money for the trip.

The British Government is paying transportation charges in England and Wales. The effort for public support still is going on, and it is hoped that the cost per parent will be lowered further. Whatever the cost, the boys in the Ensemble will be all dressed up with some place to go. Two years ago their garb was uniform, but sometimes casual. It consisted of white shirts with emblems and dark trousers.

Then Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine Accompanist for the Ensemble, Mrs. Violet Addison, signs cast 1 2-year-old Ensemble singer William AnseL gollen. There, in mid-July, they will enter the children's competition, and perform in the big Saturday night concert. The Ensemble also will sing at the University of Wales, and the boys will tour London, visit Stratford-on-Avon, and an English cathedral town. The whole trip will cover eight days, including the flight back and forth to London.

Overall cost will be about 1 i A lit i Douglas Murray, age 11. Milton Velez. age 11. John Hob. age 13.

Bruce Orr. age 11. Melting Pot The Ensemble singers above represent four backgrounds! Negro. Puerto Rican. Chinese and Irish.

Yet all sing a "comixm language." THE yHItADEUHlCWptmiK MAGAZINE.

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About The Philadelphia Inquirer Archive

Pages Available:
3,845,124
Years Available:
1789-2024