Reflections

April, 2004

My name is Marc Miller and I was a member of the choir family from 1967 to 1978. After I got too old to fake being a kid, I hung on as a Manager.

A few weeks ago I saw a screening of the Robert Altman movie The Company. At the moment I heard the choir, I turned to my girlfriend and said, "I will bet you cash that's the Chicago Childrens' Choir." (ed. It was)

It was after that I decided to poke around and see if any of my choir friends were still alive.

Just about everything about who I am is a direct result of my choir experience. More than the tours, and more than the famous and influential people I met, I remember most of all the wonderful friends I made.

I have discovered that people like Christopher Moore are not waiting around every corner to teach every kid the life lessons I learned. Among those lessons were tolerance, respect for creativity and discipline -- lessons taught by example from people who lived them.

I won't bore anyone with prehistoric CCC stories, though I have a bucketful. I just want to use this post to let my former choirmates know that they are still as real for me today as they were 30 years ago. I could probably render a pretty darn good roster year by year from memory.

I did not stay in touch for long after I left Chicago for good in 1980. I wondered if it was still the same for those who came after. One day, years later, I was in Chicago on business. I took the IC down to Hyde Park. I never stepped inside the building, just stood on 57th Street and listened to the sounds of the rehearsal above. Somehow I just felt that everything was right with the world. It was wonderful.

These days I am on the radio in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida under the air name "Marc Haze". It would be great to hear from anyone who remembers me.

For those of you currently in the choir. If an old guy can offer just one bit of advice. Don't for one single day forget how lucky you are.

Marc Miller
Tampa, Florida
marc@tbirdnet.com

---

December, 2002

My name is Liz Blackwell (well, at least it was back then!) and I was in choir from 1983 until 1985. This stint with the red jacket crew was brief, but greatly influential in my life. I know the high expectations that Marty, Keith and Nick had for us made me a better student and now professional. Plus, it gave me a life-long love of music! I remember starting off in a 6th grade chorus in the basement of Ray School in Hyde Park, with this rather odd conductor named Chris Moore (during one rehearsal, he accidentally spit and lost his tooth, which hit another student on the forehead..).

I remember our Spring Tour to the East Coast in 1985, learning amazing songs in incredible languages (Mi Go Zatvorile is now a lullaby for my 5-month old), Saturday morning rehearsals at the Unitarian Church, making friends with people I never would have met otherwise, etc. I have always regretted that I had to move after 8th grade, missing 4 more great years of fabulous music and friendship, but I hope you are all doing well. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers me!

Liz (Blackwell) Nelson
St. Louis, Missouri
Enelson@oasisnet.org

---

February, 2002:

I was in the choir from 1963 I believe until 1967.The last big event I remember was Arie Crown Theatre before it burned down. We performed the Nutcracker Suite and were the snowflakes.

We were the Chicago Boys Choir when I joined. I was among a group of about 4 boys from St Clara's Elementary at 6423 S. Woodlawn.

Michael Lattimore
lattimm@earthlink.net

---

February, 2002

I was in the choir 1968-1970, then worked for the Choir (and sang in the Men's section) 1977-1978.... I remember tuning into Studs Terkel [on WFMT] at 10 a.m. at work in 1980 and hearing Chris Moore telling a story about my experiences commuting to Saturday rehearsals. These Choir experiences still bring very strong emotions...

Bob Jones
robertjones@smsu.edu

November, 2006

My name is Paul L. Robertson. I am the Foster son of Christopher Moore. I am proud to see what has happened with my fathers dream. To see how far it has come and to know that his dream has taken root and flourished. I believe that he would be proud too and would look down upon you with a broad smile and say, "Thank you for taking care of my choir and my children. The young and those not so young. The six who started with me and the hundreds more who joined me later. And now those, whose faces I have not seen but whose voices reach out in song to celebrate the never ending and intricate highways we travel in life, are alowed to do this because you understood the dream. You, and those who have worked so diligently by your side have helped those voices to be heard around the world. The voices of the angels, the children. The dream was that all voices would be heard. Both the rich and the poor. The White and the Black. The asian and the hispanic. All the children, for they are our future, the keepers of our dreams and maybe with the gift of music, which thanks to you continues on, they will learn to be wiser in the handeling of that future and more understanding of the dreams that we leave behind." This message is to all those who have been managing the CCC and to all those who will continue to pursue this endeavor. 

I hope you don't mind me leaving this message, but I am in awe of what you have done and from all that I learned from my father I know he would be too. I just wanted to tell you.  

Paul L. Robertson

PaulR111@aol.com

---

January, 2002:

My name is Leslie Crary. I was in the choir from, I think, 1968-1978.

Being in the choir was, by far, the best and most significant part of my childhood. In so many ways it defines who I am. I'm sure you've heard it before. I use my choir experience -- both musically and socially -- as a sort of litmus test in many areas: especially music education and developing high standards of music and friendship for my children. Unfortunately, I no longer live in Chicago and am therefore unable to duplicate the experience for my children (one of whom enjoys sleeping in my now-ancient Chicago Children's Choir T-Shirts).

I would love to be kept informed of the choir, its concert schedule, etc. I can't wait until you get the on-line store up and running.

Anyway, feel free to put my contact information into your database for sharing with other alumni. Also, if you have a mailing list, put me on it.

Leslie Crary
Berkeley, California
lcrary@redtractor.com

---

April, 2005:

Last Spring (2004), my partner and I were scouting out locations for our commitment ceremony in Ann Arbor Michigan. After suffering the scheduling conflicts of several of our favorite spaces, we heard of a bed and
breakfast right in town that had a large space for rent. As soon as I walked into the room, I knew I had been there before. In fact, I knew WHY I had been there before, approximately when I had been there, as well as the weather of the day I had been there, and what we had sung when we had been there in 1979. It was no surprise to me, then, that the proprietor of the inn (for those curious, the Vitosha Guest House) told us that the property had been a Unitarian Church until the mid 1980s. I don't know why the memory of that church always remained so vivid for me, but some of them
always have. In this case, it was the big sunny room, large pipe organ to the side. I think it may have been the vividness of that tour over all - one of the few that both my brother, Mark, and I were on together. It was
a short tour up through Michigan to Toronto in the summer probably 1979- the highlight of which was a very very brief (and terrifying!!!!) performance at the Kiwanni's Club convention in a hockey stadium.

When my brother arrived for our ceremony last June, he pulled me aside and said - oh my God, I've BEEN here before!!!

Rachel Andrews

andrewsr@denison.edu