For the first time since 2017, members of the Texas Boys Choir will have the opportunity to perform abroad as they head to Paris Oct. 10.
Twenty-eight members of the Grammy Award-winning choir will sing at the U.S. Embassy, both the American Chapel and American Cathedral, and also will practice and perform in a choral exchange with La Maîtrise de Sainte-Croix de Neuill, or Paris Boys Choir.
The trip is a family affair for brothers Daniel and Ryan Cox.
Ryan, a freshman, has always loved music, but his parents said he never showed any interest in performing until he attended a Texas Boys Choir Christmas concert in second grade.
“He came back and said, ‘I want to do that,’” his mom, Sara Cox recalled.
Shortly after that, Ryan attended a workshop that is similar to an apprentice program, auditioned for the school and the choir, joining both in third grade.
“I mean, I’ve always loved music,” he said. “And then I think a big part of it was knowing that my dad was in it. And I did an apprenticeship program and a summer camp with the choir like the year before, and I was sold.”
Daniel, now a fifth-grader, didn’t seem interested in choir whenever one of his parents mentioned the idea, but that changed after he attended one of his brother’s concerts.
“We had asked him regularly, ‘Are you interested in going to FWAFA? Are you interested in the Texas Boys Choir?’ And he wasn’t really sure,” his mom said. “And he came out of the concert in tears and said, ‘I want to do that.’ It was really neat.”
“Part of it was because my brother was in it,” Daniel admitted. “I wanted to travel and sing. And I love music.”
Ryan is excited to see the Eiffel Tower and experience the acoustics in the big cathedrals and chapels where they will sing, while Daniel is looking forward to the food and the choral exchange.
“I’m pretty excited, but a little nervous because it will be their only definition of what the Texas Boys Choir really is,” he said. This moment is especially significant for their dad, Christian Cox, who is an alum of the group and was able to tour the Bahamas as a choir member roughly 30 years ago.
“I think it’s phenomenal. I think it just shows what kids are capable of,” he said.
The students work really hard, he said, and the choir fosters both musicianship and independence.
“It’s great that they finally get to go.”
The impetus for this tour was a performance last fall by the Texas Boys Choir at the H. Neil Mallon Award Dinner in Dallas. The evening’s honoree, Ambassador Jeanne L. Phillips — who served in Paris from 2001-2003 — was impressed by the choir; a few months later she invited them to perform at her daughter’s wedding in Paris this month.
“As a young girl, she had seen them sing at many weddings in Dallas and had always dreamed of that,” Texas Boys Choir artistic director Todd Prickett, said. “So when the time came, she really wanted that to happen, and we are thrilled to have been able to accept the invitation.”
In 2022, the choir was scheduled to compete in the World Choir Games in South Korea, but that trip was canceled because of the pandemic. This year is the first time any of the boys, ages 10 to 18, will perform with their choir abroad.
“We have taken some domestic tours that they have thoroughly enjoyed, but traveling internationally is a whole different sort of thing,” Prickett said. “They are very excited. And I think this will open their eyes to a world of possibilities.”The Ryan Foundation helped support this tour with a $25,000 grant. The choir and the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts, the school that the students attend, worked hard to make the trip as affordable as possible through scholarships and fundraisers, the choir’s artistic director said.
A trip like this is something Prickett could have only dreamed of as a kid growing up in central Kansas.
“I grew up in the middle of a lot of farmland in a very tiny school and was not afforded opportunities (like this),” he said. “I think that’s partly what makes it so special for me. My son is a member of the group. He is a senior and is the president of the organization this year, and he’s getting opportunities that I could only have dreamed of as a young man.”
Marcheta Fornoff covers the arts for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.