Newsday from New York, New York • 98

8883? 7-hmoMHWI A rew QOOD MM Mr55SSmL JgMTMttah WggaranKii UU3UM 1610 TMOOraUMD() "ggMgar "gBaSltt GREEN ACRES I A Ml io wf3 Vlll STRtkM S16 S61-2100 AKCAIN PlRFORMANCtl S3.75 MM, 'CMTOf AMOMM Dammam 1-M4J0 7:11 CONCOURSE PLAZA tfAST 16UI SIRHt. BRONX CONCOURSE VILLAGE WtST 24 HOUR PHUNI 7 IB SB8 M'' BARGAIN PERFORMANCES S3-7S li! Mo- OaN I MaU wTsw-ast ufmdwmi MjOM3PH ioor.t MW BOYS CHOIR OF HARLEM i umai.iin LSBD3BS1J involvement with Basra Choir deepened, he put SHOW 1 1 0 1 0 0 fi HOLY manager, he ngn. I cant have that I want you to stay in one place he thwacks the oiano lid with hie oahn because msnv no-pie would like to think you do that all the tune! You know what I mean. Nobody movee. For the young singers, long rehearsals arent the only tough part of being in the choir.

Some choristers spear of harassment by neighborhood gang members. Sometimea they think we cant fight and stuff, says 12-year-old Jerome Bell. He reflects a moment But were going all around the world and meeting different people. All they do is stand around the block and play with their friends. Aa the singers prepare to move from the lobby to rehearse onstage, Turnbull addressee them again: For the entire period, people must stay in one position.

No one goee to the bathroom without it being known 1F someone here. Turnbulls single-minded intensity was forged during his operatic career, which included appearances with die New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Houston Grand Opera. Over the years, as his his own singing career on hold. Or, rather, it was put on hold for him. Youve worked twenty years to be the number-one singer, he says.

But its a real problem when you go to audition and you stand up there as a proud Uadi man. The auditionere cant distinguish whether youre right for Tamino through their perceptions of you as Otdlo. They cant quite get it together, and because of that you dont get hired. If a Porgy and Bern doesnt come along; or a Treemoniaha ere dont work. Over the years, the choir has become the focus of Turnbull's relentless energy, leaving leas and leas time for outside passions.

Do I have a life? he muses. He lets out a sound thats half sigh, half guffaw. Who knosrs? Sometimes I think not. Bqys Choir has been my total consumption. Hu workload is one more small incentive for Turnbull to build the choir's economic base.

If we can work on an endowment to solidify the Bays Choir of Harlem institutionally," he says, well all be better off. Margalit Fox is a fret-lance writer. Mind Your ity Business Every Monday In nsassmn r. iJ- vif --JA. AS.

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