Keystone State Boychoir

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Keystone State Boychoir

Image:KSBLogo004.gif "Pennsylvania's Boychoir"
Created:	2001
Directors:	Joseph Fitzmartin and Stephen Fisher
Genre:	Boychoir, Opera, Folk, Gospel, Jazz, other popular styles
KSBTourBlog.org

The Keystone State Boychoir[1] is a singing group for young men, ages 7 to 17, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This choir is well known for not only sounding nice, but being attractive to look at. Stephen Fisher's philosophy is that a choir is only as good as it's last performance so he encourages the children to sing with their voices and their body.

Founded in 2001, the choir performs regularly around the Delaware Valley area, including performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Opera Company of Philadelphia[2] (Carmen (2002), La Boheme (2006), and Hansel and Gretel (2007)), the Mendelssohn Club, and the Philadelphia Choral Arts Society.

The Boychoir has performed for governors, senators and ambassadors, as well as at sporting events such as 76'ers[3] and Kixx[4] games. The choir also goes on a multi-week worldwide concert tour every year. Past tours have included South Africa, Brazil, Canada and Alaska, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia in 2007. Plans for summer of 2008 include Monaco, France, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria.

KSB has been on many tours around the world. In 2002 the Keystone State Boychoir traveled to South Africa where music is an enormous part of society and culture. There they went on a safari, sang at the Johannesburg Civic Theater and did various other things with the locals. In 2003 the choir traveled to Brazil. In Brazil they traveled and saw wonderous sights like waterfalls and learned ethnic dances. They still use these movements in a song called Cantar that they learned there. In 2004 they traveled to Canada and Alaska. There they witnessed stampeeds, luging and bobsleding. In 2005 they traveled to Japan. There they stayed in homestays, sang at a harbor and visited a castle. In 2006 they traveled to South East Asia. There they were American dimplomats. They were the first american children to share a stage with vietnameese children. They sang at a Music Educator's convention that made them more known around the country and the world. In 2007 they traveled to Australia. There they swam at the Great Barrier Reef, saw the Sydney Opera House, saw Ayers Rock and sang with over 100 Australian singers in the 5 most populated cities in Australia. No matter where ever they went they showed the world how good Americans can be so they don't get a bad opinion about them.

The KSB was the brainchild of Artistic Director Joseph Fitzmartin and Associate Director Steven Fisher. Fitzmartin teaches music at William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, is a successful composer, and was associate director and accompanist of the Philadelphia Boys Choir for 21 years. Fisher, a playwright, is heavily involved in bringing music education to South Africa and was assistant director of the Philadelphia Boy Choir for 7 years.

Since its founding, the choir has grown to become the Commonwealth Youth Choirs, which also includes the Pennsylvania Girlchoir.