Teaching and Conducting Diverse Populations
This chapter examines how social delineations of boys’ singing inform the boychoir conductor’s choices for vocal technique, programming, and rehearsal procedure. The introduction identifies structural elements that delineate a boychoir from other types of choirs, especially in the United States, with its traditions of multistage maturity level singers across different vocal registers. Once established, the chapter examines signature programming, rehearsal, and performance norms, with attention to the intersection of traditional and contemporary practices. Following a consideration of the boychoir community and its relationship to the community-at-large, the chapter closes with the concluding assertion of a boychoir pedagogy that synergizes the handling of different levels of boychoir development (especially voice changes) and adult and boy meanings of boys’ singing.