Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir
So I am now here in Washington, DC, starting last April 19. I work in the city and live in the suburbs. I was here for five months five years ago, so it doesn’t feel like everything is foreign; still, there is a bottomless list of things to do and explore in this city. I even heard someone say, “If you’re bored in DC, it’s your own damn fault.”
When I told my very own director/sister/social secretary Francesca that I had arrived, she shared with me some of the things she liked to do back when she lived here and recommended a few that matched my interests. She also told me about this church not very far from where I work on 18 & H: St. Matthews Cathedral. I went there on my way to work last Friday morning, the first time I stepped into a church since I got here. I came at the right time because there was a mass and I was able to receive communion. I felt refreshed. As I was leaving, I saw the poster for the concert of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir, which, I had read, was similar to the Vienna Boys Choir. I thought it would make for a perfect Mothers’ Day celebration with my sister and her family, but unfortunately they had other plans.
So I went alone.

This is the church on a beautiful Sunday. I thought and had accepted that I was going to be late for the 5:30PM mass, but instead I had the smoothest travel, i.e., I didn’t have to wait for my transfer train that would have taken 20 minutes extra travel time because of scheduled repairs in the Metro. I even had time to get lost (as usual) and pee when I got to the church. It blows my mind thinking how God works in my life.
*The mass was beautiful. During sermon the priest read a poem that perfectly captured the Gospel and the spirit of Mothers’ Day: The Lanyard by Billy Collins.

After the mass, I moved to the front row for the concert. The mass was awesome but I was really looking forward to the concert. The old people around me were talking about how they had heard about the event from embassies etc. The church had the best acoustics! It’s the perfect place for choral concerts.

When the organ abruptly played and these blond little boys started filing in wearing their sailor costumes, I almost died of cuteness.
A bit of background, from the program print-out:
The Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir was founded in 1924 … In 1988, the choir could add the name Royal Chapel in its CV when Queen Margrethe II of Denmark gave her permission to this. This title enables the Choir to perform at special occasions and tours as well as accompany the Royal Danish Court like in 2004 when Copenhagen was in focus when HRH Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary were married … [The Choir] consists of between 60 and 80 boys in the age from 9-14 years. At concerts the choir performs together with 16 male voice members to give depth in the light angel sound of the boys’ choir. [Chief conductor] Ebba Munk stresses the professional approach of the members in the choir in spite of their young age: “I don’t want to make them out to be angels but they are wonderful boys who are extremely disciplined.”
That last part was very easy to believe. Just look at this photo and video, in which the “male voice members” have copies of the songs but not the little boys; they sang everything from memory:

Here they were singing Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen by Heinrich Schütz. I wish I understood, but music is a universal language they say. It was cool listening closely to sounds that didn’t seem to exist in English phonology (hey, I was an English major..) Also, one of the adult guys had a Superman/Brandon Routh thing going on.
Salve Regina by Franz Liszt. They were such little boys; even while singing, some of them would scratch their noses and heads. It was adorable, and it was obvious they were enjoying: the effect was very natural, nothing contrived or scripted.
Of course, as you can imagine, my iPhone videos (and photos) don’t give them justice. I deliberately left my camera at home because I didn’t want to be bothered by taking photos, but I couldn’t resist.

Here, the kids joined the organist and the harpist by the side of the church. There were parts in the first half of the concert where the kids would sit to give way to the organist, an established lady who had played some of the finest organs in the world, like those in Westminster Abbey and the Notre Dame Cathedral. The way she played was very powerful, and she gave the most dramatic bow at the end of every piece. I loved it.
There was a break after this part, not only for the boys to rest, but also to change costumes, apparently:
This was probably my favorite piece. On the program it says Northern Lights: A Suite of Ballads and Songs for Spring and Summer in Denmark for harp and choir.
Lord, make me an instrument of your love.
Although they were all good, certainly some parts had to be specially assigned to a few of the boys, like to sing from the side of the church to achieve a certain effect – they were all successful. To me, personally, there was this one boy who was the star of the show. He didn’t have any special singing role, but he was the charmer. He would smile (AND POSE) every time he would sense a camera was pointed at them, and since I was in the front row, he would wink and gesture which side of the choir I should look at for the next part in the piece.

For the last part of the concert, they all scattered around the church and sang a patriotic American song that was only vaguely familiar to me. There was standing ovation at the end of every piece.
When the concert ended, I went to the restroom which turned out to be next to the room where the choir was having snacks. I wanted to see them until this old lady who looked Filipina emerged from the room and said, “You are not allowed here! You are not allowed here!” OKAYYY. But when I saw that she had left, I went back in and asked one of the adult singers who were chilling outside (and smoking) if I could come in, and he was absolutely positive, SURE! And by the door there was Kristoff (right) and the other kids:

That boy will break many hearts in the future. But mine, tonight, is swelling from grace and beautiful music. Thank you God.
Comments Off















































