Chorus Creates Harmonious Future for Boston's Children
Children's choir is helping bridge racial divides.
Dec. 24, 2010— -- The Boston Children's Chorus is a talented group of young musicians who have delighted audiences across the country. But this chorus is actually much about much more than just entertainment.
The chorus is a place where racial harmony is as important as musical harmony. A place where children learn to be just as concerned about social change as they are about a change in key.
"Being in the Boston Children's Chorus has allowed me to meet many new friends and to see many other races so I will be more open to the world, because when I see cultures of others it makes me think, Hey, this is interesting. Maybe if I look into it more, I can make myself become a better person," said David Levinsky, a seventh-grader in the choir.
The chorus' mission is to bring together children who are not always exposed to cultures and races different than their own. The program targets children from Boston and its suburban areas and works to foster community-development in underserved areas.
It is all because of the vision of one man. 77-year-old Hubie Jones, a professor, social worker and social activist who has lived in Boston for more than 50 years.
"When our diverse singers walk onto a stage and sing, Boston sees what it can become," said Jones.
Jones started the group in 2003, and has been the guiding force behind the choir, even though he cannot sing or play as musical instrument himself.
"I got into this for reasons of trying to have some social development, authentic social integration of young people across these divides. And to use a musical organization like this for social healing," said Jones.
Jones thought that a racially mixed children's group could help heal some of the scars that Boston still bears from the ugly and sometimes violent fight over school desegregation in the 1970s.
Even now, 40 years later, the school system in Boston has racial divides. Most of the white children in the Boston area attend schools that are predominately white. Most black and Latino children attend schools where they are the majority.
The Boston Children's Chorus helps to blend those lines, many of the children who participate had never even met a children from different ethnic groups.
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