More than music: Birmingham Boys Choir celebrates 50 years

For 50 years, the Birmingham Boys Choir has entertained audiences at their spring and Christmas concerts, along with other shows they perform throughout the year.

They’ve traveled far and wide with their historic choral music, with more than 100 boys singing songs in unison, and they’re widely praised.

Still, Music Director and resident composer Ken Berg said it’s not just about the music. The staff at the Birmingham Boys Choir is not only teaching the boys how to sing, but a “right way to live,” Berg said.

“We hear a lot about toxic masculinity,” Berg said. “What is the remedy for that? Biblical masculinity.”

Boys are taught to hold on to “creation truths,” to values such as honesty, goodness, strength, kindness and more, Berg said. And when those who hear their voices have a chance to interact with them off the stage, or when a boy’s parents see what the choir does for their child, they understand it too, Berg said.

“What they really appreciate is the integrity [that is] taught,” he said. “We take representing Birmingham very seriously.”

Berg and his wife, Susan, have been helping lead the choir for 45 years. The choir is run by a board of directors, and the choir includes 140 boys from 40 different schools in the Birmingham area.

Boys in third through fifth grade are junior choristers, while those in fifth through eighth grade can join the senior choristers. Eighth grade boys graduate from the choir but can still participate as graduate choristers from ninth through 12th grade, Berg said. It’s not uncommon for boys to join in third grade and stay until they graduate from high school, with eight doing so this year, he said.

In addition to their famed — and free — seasonal concerts, the senior and graduate boys participate in ticketed, collaborative concerts throughout the year, Berg said. They are working this fall with the musical group Three on a String and have previously worked with storytellers Sean of the South and Dolores Hydock, he said.

Leaders oversee the boys during a “huge, pivotal” time of change, Berg said. It is a responsibility they take very seriously. Their time in the choir is instrumental, not just in teaching them music, but in teaching life lessons.

The choir’s executive director, Jeff Caulk, said it is “just fantastic” to be involved in the boys’ lives. Caulk said it is a “confluence of values and education for growing boys into men.”

“It’s more than music,” Caulk said. “It’s training for life.”

A former chorister himself, Caulk said he is a better man because of his time with the boys choir.

Seeing boys join the choir from all walks of life is inspiring, Caulk said.

“It’s the way community should be,” he said. “All the boys love finding friends and we love getting to watch it.”

The boys also might be more athletically or academically-inclined, but it’s all useful, Berg said. Singing involves having the correct physical form, along with understanding languages, pitch, location and more, he said.

“You’ve got to be smart to do this,” Berg said. “They are mutually sustaining.”

The boys rehearse in satellite locations during the week, with lessons on the south, east and western end of Birmingham, along with an inner-city class on Wednesday. Boys go to the closest class to them, Berg said. Those practices last between 13 and 14 weeks before all the students come together for about three weeks.

“When the curtain goes up … it’s an impressive sight as well as sound,” he said.

The choir is well known, not only for their concerts here in Birmingham, but across the country and world, Berg said. They have traveled to Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Japan, Germany, Florida, Portland, Seattle and more.

“They’re pretty well known,” Berg said.

Bringing all the boys together after weeks spent apart and teaching them challenging music could not be done without a “fantastic” music staff, Berg said.

“I get all the glory and it’s really not fair,” he said.

Music can include portions of Handel’s Messiah, Christmas music and always a certain amount of “sacred literature,” Berg said. Leaders are careful with what they put in front of the boys and also strive to teach Christian virtues through the music that is chosen.

Even as they learn how to hit the right notes, the boys are taught what the words themselves mean, Berg said.

“Don’t sing that without thinking about what you’re singing,” Berg said he’ll tell the boys. “Music allows for that, especially choral music.”

He said his hope is that the music lifts people up and encourages them.

While they’re talented musically, the boys are also “endlessly entertaining,” Berg said.

In the 45 years since he began, the number of boys has jumped from 13 to more than 100. The group also found a way to keep boys past puberty, Berg said.

One of the highlights of the choir is the camp, where older boys are counselors to younger boys, forging strong bonds that last through the years, he said.

In talking with people about the choir, Berg said others are always surprised at what the boys can do.

“It’s not that our expectations are too high [for children]; it’s that our expectations are too low,” he said.

The goal is not simply for boys to “have a good time,” but to be challenged and grow.

And the challenge extends to fathers once every other year, Berg said. In odd-numbered years, dads and father figures are allowed to sing with their boys at the Christmas concert. While many come to him admitting they aren’t choir material, Berg said they also are surprised at what they can do.

It’s often the one opportunity outside of church where fathers are able to learn together and create something together with their sons, Berg said.

“To watch that heritage … it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.

The choir auditions boys coming into third grade through eighth grade year-round and is preparing for their July enrollment. Their summer camp is set for July 25-29, Berg said. For more information, visit birminghamboyschoir.org.