Opera composer to take over American Fork children’s choir

AMERICAN FORK, Utah — The road from writing operas to directing children singing about a mysterious cat or a Halloween song about bones is apparently not too long.

 

M. Ryan Taylor, composer of the opera "Abinadi," is the new director of the American Fork Children's Choir.

 

He only has two rehearsals under his belt, but the children have already taken to him and seem to love performing for him.

 

"He is fun," said 8-year-old Megan Sloan. "I really like it. I am learning things already." She said she would encourage a friend to join if they were considering it.

 

"You should go because you will have a lot of fun. If you do go, you get prizes," she said.

 

This is the first time Taylor has directed a children's choir.

 

"I did a lot of reading and research into children's choirs," he said. "So far the ideas are working like magic."

 

Instead of singling any of the children out if there is a wrong note, he takes a different approach. He brings out a set of tubes, to allow the singers to hear themselves in one ear and the rest of the choir with the other ear. The concept seems to work, as the individual children almost instantly begin to blend with each other. No one is identified for singing a wrong note, but the results are the same.