The American Boychoir Visits Eaglebrook

The Bartlett Assembly Area was alive with the sound of music this week as Eaglebrook School hosted the American Boychoir. All of the boys in the choir attend the American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey, which is a boarding and day school for boys in the fourth through eighth grades. There are forty-six students in the school, twenty-nine of whom are in the concert choir, which tours 100 days of the year. On the first day of the visit, members of the Eaglebrook chorus participated in a workshop with the Boychoir, going through warm up exercises and learning about technique and style with the Boychoir’s Music Director, Mr. Fernando Malvar-Ruiz. The Boychoir performed for the school the next night, and nine Eaglebrook students were asked to sing in one number with the choir. The music was amazing; the choir performed songs from Korea, South Africa, and Australia and were lively, funny, and talented. The selections from Australia included six boys from the choir using harmonic sound to sing more than one note at a time. The effect was amazing, and the Eaglebrook audience was spellbound.

Attending the concert was Mr. Finn Runyon ’72, whose son Finnian is a member of the Boychoir’s concert choir and a seventh grader at the American Boychoir School. Mr. Runyon traveled from New Jersey to watch Finnian perform and see the Eaglebrook campus for the first time in 38 years. “So much has changed since I was a student here,” said Mr. Runyon. “This place has got such memories for me. It was fun to talk with Finnian about his experience at Eaglebrook,” he continued. The Eaglebrook boys were able to ask questions during the performance, which the members of the Boychoir answered enthusiastically and thoroughly. It was an honor for everyone at Eaglebrook to have the opportunity to host the American Boychoir. Leo Kan, Eaglebrook’s Choral Director, was thrilled to have them here, saying “They are the Holy Grail of choirs in this country. It is so wonderful that they could come to sing with us.” Click here to see photos from the Boychoir’s visit to Eaglebrook.