From Vienna to Brookline?

By James H. Burnett III

 

BROOKLINE, MA — That anyone questions the wisdom of his latest career choice makes Andy Icochea Icochea chuckle.

A thin man with dark eyes and frizzy dark hair, Icochea Icochea (twice named, because his mother’s maiden name and father’s surname are the same) was, until a couple of months ago, a choir master of the renowned Vienna Boys Choir, the same one that sings to popes and presidents. But in the spring, after six years in that post, he quit, left Austria, and moved his family here to take over the PALS Children’s Chorus of Brookline – a predominantly girls choir.

To some, it would be like Terry Francona deciding one day to quit managing the Red Sox and go to the minor leagues to take over in Pawtucket. But Icochea Icochea, who is 38, says he was ready for the change.