By Greg di Cresce
WINNEPEG — Several young boys do their best to stand still before a Sunday congregation at the Crescent Fort Rouge United Church. Then they open their mouths. Out comes a bell-like sound, silvery and steely and shiny. The Winnipeg Boys’ Choir is singing Rainbow Connection and the audience is enthralled.
“It is a remarkable sound,” says choir manager Nicola Spasoff. “It’s a pure sound that allows boys to express themselves emotionally and openly in a society that doesn’t permit men, and, perhaps, particularly boys to do it that often. So, when we hear it, we can’t help but go: ‘Awwwwww.'”
Choir conductor Carolyn Boyes adds: “When you’re listening to young trebles sing, you can’t help but feel — in the different power and unique colour of that voice — that it’s a short-lived gift. And, if the studies are true, the lifespan of that gift is getting shorter.”
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