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Nine Hundred Real Men Sing

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An amazing number of men, nine hundred strong, singing at the University of Oklahoma’s football stadium.
 
This picture is from the event last week.  However, here are a few words from the organizers back in 2007:
 
“The purpose of the whole event is to encourage young men to sing, to show them that other young men also sing,” said Dr. Mark Lucas, associate professor of choral music education, who started the annual workshop last year. He said he focused his dissertation on why adolescent males do or do not take choir. “The thought is that it’s not cool for guys to sing,” Lucas said. “My research showed that some guys actually believe that, that it’s not manly to sing.” Young men who see male role models singing are more likely to participate in choir, he said. So hopefully, the workshop Friday will show young men in Oklahoma that “real men do sing,” Lucas said.

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  2. Arizona has had something similar to this for a number of years each fall, titled “Boys to Men,” which involves local male-voice ensembles of all types, and young men from junior and senior high programs attend with their teachers and participate in a mass-choir performance at the end. The goal of the Boys to Men project is to promote communitywide access to choral training and development for young male singers.  Junior and senior high school male singers are engaged by artistic leadership at the highest level and are encouraged to continue singing after their school experiences.
     
    Phoenix’s Orpheus Male Chorus (Arizona’s oldest choral ensemble) is the primary sponsor–here’s the link to the info page about the 2011 festival on the Arizona ACDA site:
     
     
    The Phoenix Chorale has also been a co-sponsor and sends its men to the event (I have participated many times). In 2009, the world-famous professional male ensemble Chanticleer was featured at the event and the mass choir was led by its director, Matthew Ottman:
     
     
    Ours is a little different and not quite as large as the OK workshop, but it’s successful in its own right. Congratulations to Oklahoma on their successful event!

  3. The four of us in front of this amazing display of young men in the University of Oklahoma football stadium are OU faculty members Mark Lucas, Richard Zielinski, Steven Curtis, and I was there as a guest. This was an amazing day of singing, and I wish every state would take on a project such as this!

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