David Short's Graduation Address

From David Short's graduation address: What beautiful gem of knowledge did I expect to hold when I was in my final year of Kantorei? I think it is perspective. Now that I have been in the Choir for nine years, I can look back at my first year and laugh at the time I was so disappointed there was no rehearsal on Labor Day that I burst into tears. I can also see the education that I’ve gotten over the past nine years. An education that started at “Do Re Mi” and has continued all the way to Flat Submediant Modulations and Neopolitan Sixths.
Mr. Ross, Mrs. Knight, and, for some of us veterans, Mr. K have been there for all of us seniors, giving us a musical education that has struck a chord, so to speak, inside of each of us so strongly that every one of the graduating seniors plans to pursue or study music during his college career. Thanks to Kantorei we have all learned how to make some of the most wonderful music on earth. Ask Mr. Ross, and I’m positive he’ll assure you that we’ve learned how not to do it as well! Thanks to tours all around the world we’ve learned about other cultures, other cities, other choirs, and some of us have tried to work on how to hit on girls who may not speak our language… and we’ve learned that it tends not to succeed. With the perspective I’ve gained from nine years of experience I can see the friendships I’ve made. Friendships strengthened by staying up too late, 8 hour bus rides next to each other, and marathon recording sessions, but formed by the common love we all share for singing: a love that is the heartbeat of Kantorei. It was when I joined and it still is as I am leaving. It’s that love of singing that makes us all look around with amazement at each other when a chord just POPS in rehearsal; that love that sent goosebumps down the entire treble section’s necks when we first heard Prayer of the Children during my first year of Kantorei. It is that love that keeps us going to rehearsal up to 4-and-a-half hours a week, every single week. And it is that love that will have more and more seniors graduating from Kantorei, long after everyone in this choir who has ever sung with me has graduated.
So now it’s time for the seniors to say good bye and go off to our respective futures. We all have had amazing times in Kantorei. We have made memories we will not soon forget, received an unparalleled education, and, of course, made unbelievably beautiful music during our time in The Singing Boys of Rockford!

Spring Concert

Well, our last big commitment before tour is over and I thought the boys performed admirably. I hope that the Brazilian audiences enjoyed half as much as we did. Congratulations to the senior boys and I hope that this final year has been and will be memorable for them. We now look forward to our Great Brazilian Adventure.