African Children's Choir

This past Christmas, I was fortunate to attend a holiday show at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The host was a Grammy Award-winning vocalist, Sandy Patty, and the featured musical guests were a group of African children, simply named the “African Children’s Choir.” Watching the children perform was really the highlight of the show. The professional singers and musicians of the show were great. However, watching those little children perform was something to behold. But I had many questions buzzing in my mind. When we arrived to the BSO, I felt like I arrived at John McCain’s Republican Nomination Rally. You know… the one where you heard folks describe the audience as being a sea of the same “old, white, conservatives…” with no diverse group being represented in the rally. What does this have to do with anything? Well since I didn’t know what to expect at the show, every single observation, starting from entering the main door, was then being processed in my head. It seems the children, who were anywhere from 6-13 years of age, were orphans picked up by some organization in Africa to be schooled and escape the poverty and despair from their home countries. They are mostly orphans by a direct result of the pandemic disease AIDS. The concept of this organization is take to care of the needs of the children (by schooling, host families and training them vocally in choirs) and then return them to Africa as educated adults (doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc.) to break the chain of poverty that’s going on there. Looking into the gleeful, eager faces of those children I couldn’t help but notice how they assimilated into a whole new world. Touring on major network TV shows such as Dr. Phil, The Ellen Show, and American Idol. It was amazing watching them; given their impoverished background and what they had to endure, and here they were performing for grand audiences. Simply heart-touching.