Joshua Collins knows well the road between Willcox and Tucson. Very well. He spends nine hours a week traveling it for rehearsals.
On top of the rehearsals, the 14-year-old performs, travels, raises money and attends camps. His family - third-generation farmers and ranchers in Southeastern Arizona - volunteers and commits several thousand dollars a year to Joshua's participation in the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus.
The middle of five siblings, Joshua is in his third year as a member of the elite, globe-hopping, rope-twirling chorus, which is amid a bustling December teeming with holiday concerts.
The chorus ends its sold-out three-day series with the Sons of Orpheus at Mission San Xavier del Bac tonight and picks up again Saturday with its annual holiday show, one of the group's largest concerts of the year.
Seven decades of tradition, vocal- and life-skills training and teamwork make the commitment to the chorus worth it to the Collins family.
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"There's not anything that compares to what they get at the Boys Chorus," says Joshua's mom, Cathy Collins.
Tradition
Eduardo Caso, an Englishman who came to Tucson to recuperate from tuberculosis, formed the Boys Chorus in the tradition of a European boychoir in 1939.
It has retained a classic boychoir repertoire over the years, while injecting show tunes, rousing patriotic music and its trademark Western folk songs and ballads, accompanied by roping tricks and cowboy hats.
"It's viewed as a model organization" for its discipline and precision, says Jeffrey Haskell, a singer, pianist and University of Arizona professor who directed the chorus for 10 years, from 1965 to 1975. "It's wonderful to see."
"The level of the Boys Chorus is universally acknowledged to be at the very top," says Burt Kinerk, a Tucson trial attorney and sports and entertainment agent, who belonged to the chorus for 2 1/2 years beginning in 1946. "At the time (of my participation) the Vienna Boys Choir was acknowledged to be the very best, and we were right there with them."
The Boys Chorus has performed at the White House for Presidents Lyndon Johnson and George H. W. Bush, and in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
It's participated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the annual UA homecoming football game.
Photographs of choristers with stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Jones and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans line a lobby wall of its headquarters and rehearsal rooms on East Pima Street, the chorus's home base since 1975.
The group's far-reaching travels have taken the choristers throughout the United States and to China, South Korea, Taiwan, South Africa, Russia, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, the British Isles and other European nations.
Training, Education
The celebrity and hoopla don't detract from the chorus's core values of music education and social development, says Julian Ackerley, the chorus director since 1980. The chorus has had four directors in its 73 years; Ackerley's 32 years at the helm make him the chorus's longest-running director.
The boys become musically literate through structured study that includes voice training and music reading skills, says Ackerley, who has a doctor of musical arts with an emphasis in music education, vocal performance and choral conducting.
Anthony Constantino, who wrote music as part of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Young Composers Project, sang in the chorus from 2003 to '09, and says it "is undoubtedly what started my passion for choral and vocal music."
Before he graduated from University High School earlier this year, Constantino's compositions were performed by his high school chorus, the Arizona Repertory Singers and at Carnegie Hall.
"I know first-hand that singing in a choir is the best way to learn how to write for choir, and the chorus gave me many years of experience," says Constantino, now a freshman studying composition at the Manhattan School of Music in New York.
TEAMWORK
Social development remains intrinsic to the program.
Excellence is one of the values the chorus operates upon, Constantino says in an email,"not only in music but also in general facets of life."
"Each of us was expected to contribute to making every concert a success," says former Tucson Police Chief Peter Ronstadt, a five-year member of the chorus, beginning in 1951.
Caso, the founding director, insisted that discipline was absolutely necessary for us to be a professional-quality organization, Ronstadt says, noting that members were "expected to act that way - individually and collectively."
Donald Pitt, a prominent Tucson attorney, investor and philanthropist, has similar memories. "Caso stressed punctuality and appearance," says Pitt who joined the chorus during its second year, and sang with it for four years.
The choristers also receive "gentlemen training" to supplement what they learn at home, says Ackerley.
The boys learn how to shake hands properly, engage in conversation with adults, be welcome guests when they travel and are housed in private homes, and how to discern when to do certain things, Ackerley says.
Cathy Collins says she has seen her son develop and use these skills.
"He knows when to help people," Collins says. For example, Joshua and family members were in a hotel lobby when a harpist, toting the instrument and a music stand, struggled into the room. Joshua immediately went to the harpist's aid, helping her move the music stand.
Joshua is also learning to set priorities and make decisions. Cathy Collins says he has had to select school projects and activities.
Commitment
The chorus is time-consuming - regular rehearsals, learning trick roping, summer music camps, performances and travel.
Joshua, a member of the Touring Chorus, will be involved with chorus activities about 16 days this month.
Boys must be between the ages 8 to 12 to join. Rather than audition, Ackerley says interviews determine a boy's ability to "match tonal pitch."
Chorus tuition ranges from $550 for the training group to $800 for the Touring Chorus, Ackerley says. Financial assistance is available.
With travel and other expenses - excluding trips between Willcox and Tucson - Collins says her family spends about $5,000 per year for Joshua to participate.
Travel
The Boys Chorus will head to China for 30 days, beginning May 29, the fourth time the chorus has gone to China.
Traveling to exotic, far-way places is one of the attractions of the chorus, and Ackerley says he's proud to have taken the boys to centers of world history - the former Soviet Union, Berlin (while part of the wall was intact) and Tiananmen Square.
Ackerley emphasizes that tours are carefully assessed and selected for their educational and cultural-study potential.
A Chinese scholar and a language coach are working with the boys to prepare for the spring trip.
The chorus travels as a self-contained unit. Over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in January, the chorus will form "crews" - small groups assigned specific duties, such as hauling risers, selling concessions and loading luggage. Crew captains are selected by seniority and "every child has a task," Ackerley says.
Life lessons
The chorus makes a lifelong impression.
From his years in the chorus, Pitt says he learned how to work with a group, gained the confidence and the ability to appear before groups of people, and learned to be prepared and punctual.
"The fact that we were also a bunch of sometimes rowdy kids was in no way allowed to interfere with our real purpose," says Ronstadt in an email. "For me, that translated in later life to the realization that, if I wanted people to take me seriously, I had to earn their respect."
Though generations after Pitt and Ronstadt, Constantino echoes their sentiments: "If I'm certain of anything, it's the fact that if I were not in the Boys Chorus, I would not be the same person I am today, let alone the same musician."
Hear them sing
The Sons of Orpheus' three-day holiday concert series with the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus concludes tonight at Mission San Xavier del Bac. The popular holiday concert is sold out. Make a note for next year: The concert is an exquisite blend of the pure, clear voices of the boys and the deep voices of the men's choir set in San Xavier's outstanding ambiance and acoustics.
Here are other opportunities to hear the chorus:
• What: The Holiday Concert is one of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus three major annual concerts. The chorus's three groups and its young men's ensemble team up with an orchestral ensemble for traditional and contemporary carols, sacred songs and Hanukkah selections.
• When: 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: Crowder Hall on the University of Arizona campus.
• Tickets: $15-$20, children under 12, $8. Get them at the chorus building, 5770 E. Pima St., or call 296-6277.
• Info: boyschorus.org
• Upcoming: The chorus's other major concerts are the Classic Concert, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 at Our Mother of Sorrows Church, 1800 S. Kolb Road; and its Pops Concert, 3 p.m. May 4 at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.
• What: Tucson Symphony Orchestra, its chorus, The Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus and others team up for a holly, jolly pops concert during "The Magic of Christmas" concert.
• When and where: 8 p.m. Dec. 22 and 2 p.m. Dec. 23.
• Where: Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.
• Tickets: $26-$69.
• Info: 882-8585 or tucsonsymphony.org
Chorus Levels
• Training Chorus: This is the entry level where most boys develop basic vocal skills and musicianship for their first year. It will perform in Saturday's Holiday Concert and at the spring Pops Concert in May.
• The TowneSingers: Members of this intermediate group have completed the Training Chorus and honed their skills as vocalists and musicians. TowneSingers perform at the holiday and pops concerts, and for local organizations, including many service-oriented, such as shows at retirement centers, Ackerley says. Several TowneSingers are alternates for the touring group.
• Touring Chorus: Considered the varsity team, about 30 of the top members from the TowneSingers and training group perform nationally and internationally. This group also performs for a fee at events and conventions.
• Tucson Arizona Young Men's Ensemble: A less-structured group comprising high school and college tenors and basses who are past Touring Chorus members, will perform at the Holiday Concert.
• Alumni group: An informal group of former choristers, these adult alumni sing at the spring Pops Concert.
Did you know?
The whirling, twirling rope tricks that have become a chorus signature are passed down among the boys - the older boys teach the younger ones. Earlier in the program, pros taught the roping skills.
"Everyone has to have a rope, and everyone has to try to use it," says Ackerley. Five ropers are selected for each concert.
'O Tannenbaum'
The chorus not only sings about the holidays and it sells Christmas trees, too.
The chorus's Christmas tree lot is in the parking lot of El Con Mall, 3601 E. Broadway.
Chorus parents started the lot 62 years ago to raise money and to gin up awareness for the group. It's become one of the town's largest Christmas tree lots. Many of the oversized trees around town are preordered from the choristers' lot.
It's staffed by the boys and their families, board members and alumni.
Hours are noon-9:30 p.m. Thursdays, Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 22. It will close earlier if the trees are sold.
Names you may know
The Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus has prominent names on its alumni rosters. Among them:
• Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. - better known as John Denver - was a country boy who recorded '70 hits such as "Rocky Mountain High." He belonged in the chorus while his father was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
• George Chakiris, who received a best supporting actor Oscar and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Bernardo, the Sharks gang leader in the 1961 film adaptation of "West Side Story," was a member of the chorus before his family moved to California when he was about 12.
What is in a name?
Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus - no comma, no apostrophe - is the group's official name.
It was referred to as a "choir" early on, but was quickly referred to as "chorus."
"Arizona" was added to avoid confusion. A 1950s-era German poster in one of the rehearsal rooms put the chorus in Texas.
While some may argue that a "choir" has a more formal connotation, and a "chorus" is more glee club-ish, there is no difference between a "chorus" and a "choir," says Ackerley.
