Monday, October 12, 2009

The Metropolitan Boys Choir is from, as you would expect, Metropolis, home of Superman and his friend Clark Kent. Occasionally they are called upon to assist law and order and help Superman put the bad guys in prison. They put them in Sing-sing which is why they need the talents of the choir.

Oh, well. Actually I just made that stuff up. The truth is a little less glamorous. They are actually from the Minneapolis/Saint Paul region.

I picked up their 1994 CD “How Great Thou Art”, 21 Traditional Hymns.
What’s not to like about these boys? They sing with simplicity and charm. These are the hymns that we sang in the Baptist church when I was a boy, Songs like Rock of Ages, Bringing in the Sheaves, the Old Rugged Cross and more.

I wonder if these are just American hymns or if they are sung in European churches as well. They really are very pretty.

Some of the songs on this album are accompanied by a piano and others by the organ so they sound very much the way they did in our church. Except these boys have rehearsed a lot and sound very professional.
Even though there are 21 songs the CD is over too quickly. It’s only about 45 minutes long.

I couldn’t find very much interesting information about them but I lifted some from their web site.

“The Metropolitan Boys Choir is an organization of young men from the Minneapolis/Saint Paul twelve county Metropolitan area. The boys range in age from five to eighteen. Founded in 1971 by Music Director, Bea Hasselmann, they merit the title "Minnesota's Young Ambassadors of Song" given to them by the late Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey. The Choir regularly appears in concert halls, churches, convention centers and senior residences throughout the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metropolitan area. The Choir has performed regularly with the Minnesota Orchestra for twenty-nine years. “

I did find one statement and I hope he doesn’t mind my quoting him “… being in the MBC helped teach me stage-presence. Even now, almost every time I sing or play in front of a group some lesson from MBC comes flashing back to my mind.” That's really nice.

3 comments:

  1. "Rock of Ages" is a British hymn...the other two that you mention were both written here in the US...dunno if they've gone back across the Pond.

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  2. I never thought about looking to see where the songs were written. That would be interesting to know. Thanks David.

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  3. Finding weird little bits of trivia is a particular talent of mine....;-)

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