St. Louis Children's Choir Lights Up University City Music Hall With Weekend Performances

One of the St. Louis community’s cultural gems visited in University City this weekend, as the St. Louis Children’s Choir performed two Family and Friends concerts.

The Sunday concert drew a full house to the beautiful art-deco style building on Trinity Avenue, originally built as the Shaare Emeth Temple, in 1930. The E. Desmond Lee concert hall’s acoustics strengthened the performances of the four choir groups, who sang a tasteful, and engaging range of songs, including classical and folk-themed music from a handful of Western traditions.

“Our choir groups sang today with joy and warmth in their hearts, and I am deeply moved to have the privilege to be a part of this experience,” said Barbara Berner, Artistic Director for the choir.

The moving experience of children in song is, indeed, a wonderful thing to enjoy. The St. Louis Children’s Choir, however, is recognized nationally as a top talent amongst metropolitan youth choir organizations. The feats of the choir are too numerous to list, but just last June the group performed at Carnegie Hall, as one of two featured choirs in the Ensemble Debut Series of the National Children’s Festival Chorus.

The concert program on Sunday opened with the Choristers group, accompanied by Ruth Price, at the piano, and Nancy Classen, on oboe. David Brunner’s The World Is Full Of Poetry offered a poignant start to the performances, as the poetic expression of the song was fulfilled by the precise tone quality of the choir, creating a statement of accomplishment to kick things off.

“The years of training, at every level, come across in the technical proficiency of our performers,” said Berner, “We recently received a letter from Maestro David Robertson, of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra...he felt that out choir was one of the best he’d ever conducted, and what set them apart was their ability to sing with inspiration.”

The youthful Music Makers took the stage, next, with a trio of children’s tunes including Lavender’s Blue, an English folk song, and nursery rhyme, which the group carried with a plucky enthusiasm, while hitting the high notes nearly perfectly.

Music Maker member, Alexis Spittal, who, at eight years old, is one of the performers the choir looks to develop as a member of its next generation, explained the hardest part of the day was overcoming the butterflies associated with taking the stage in front of an audience of nearly 1,100.

“This is my second year, and I still get a little embarrassed, but I like having the chance to sing, and it’s over before I know it,” said Spittal.

 A section of the Children’s Choir, directed by Megan Iverson, followed next, opening with Sing To The Lord God, by 18th century composer, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and closing with the French folk song, J’aime la Galette. Iverson’s introductions to the music complimented the delightful recitals, construing a theatrical sense to the performance.

The Concert Choir closed the show, with an intense rendition of Gustav Holst’s Homeland, which promised a vision of shared brotherhood, manifested in the voices of children daring to sing, with virtuosity, about a dream of patriotism unifying people of many different backgrounds.

“There are many children who start with us in the first grade, and stay till they’re seniors, they only do this because it is a deeply meaningful experience, and the fact that they make friendships across cultural and socio-economic lines is a testament to the bonds that music-making can create,” said Berner.

The choir, in its 33rd year, looks ahead to a Spring concert, which will be held on May 14, 2011 at Missouri Baptist University’s Pillsbury Chapel & Fine Arts Center. Additionally, the organization will take a group to Nashville, this summer, to perform with guest conductor Stephen Hatfield. Next year, the choir hopes to tour in Scotland.