for children’s choir, which is boys and girls. There was a little, but it was not enough to make year after year of music. So I decided to figure out how to get today’s Mozart to write for children’s choir. Here we had people winning Pulitzers, Oscars, and MacArthurs and Grammys, being commissioned around the country, never writing for children. I wanted to get someone to write a substantial piece of music. That’s where “Transient Glory” comes from. I wanted to get glorious music written for children during the time when the young voice is very unique and beautiful. “Transient.” CD: This all must have come to a head at your first concert at the 92nd Street Y. FN: We had pieces by Nora KrollRosenbaum, Michael Torke, John Tavener, Elena Kats-Chernin. We had a panel discussion of “What is children’s choir music in America?” I had the president of Boosey & Hawkes and the radio host John Schaefer from WNYC come in and speak with the composers. That’s where it all began. At that concert, I was able to attract a whole new audience and I was able to attract media. They came in to hear these composers writing for this new instrument, and the composers wrote masterpieces. People started to pay attention. “Hold on, hold on – you mean that in New York City, these composers who were winning these major awards are going to write great, serious, hard pieces for kids and they’re going to sing it well?” Other great composers started writing, even asking to write. We got some really big names – Steve Reich, Joan Tower, David Del Tredici, Meredith Monk – the list went on. After awhile, composers began to just call me directly to say, “Please commission me.” It’s so cool. Then we have organizations like Bang On a Can, Kronos Quartet, American Composers Orchestra – all saying, “What’s going on here?” CD: Is it helpful to children’s choirs in general to have all this new music being written?
Photo by Stephanie Berger.
FN: It changed the perception of what children can do. The idea of diversity became common and the artistic excellence became real and it was understood that they were both there. That to me was very cool. Then other children’s choirs started to propose outside of the choral realm. So I think that’s the door that we opened. CD: Advice for other choral directors moving on with programs? FN: I think we’re doing a great job with choral music. I feel that there’s a divide between community choirs and classroom choirs. We have to
work together and support each other to bring the children together so that they can understand that the world is much bigger than their community. The community has to understand that they’re much bigger than their own community – it goes on and on. And you have to figure out how to educate our students and still be challenging. I think we tend to get nervous about whether anything’s too hard for them. I think they’ll stay if you make it hard and interesting. People love to be challenged. A challenge, in my opinion, is what keeps a kid coming back.
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www.rcgown.com • P.O. Box 8988-CDR Jacksonville, FL 32211 Choral Director, January 2012 15