The cowboy hats, the rope tricks, the clear, sweet voices of boys in harmony - it's all here. • Still, some things have changed in the 70 years since Eduardo Caso began what is now known worldwide as the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus.
Today, iPod buds get popped into boyish ears during those long bus rides from city to city. • The dreaded paddle has been replaced by push-ups when discipline is called for. And song lists now include odes to rockers ranging from the Beach Boys to Michael Jackson. • You really haven't seen "Thriller" until you've seen it performed in high treble by 25 boys, all in zombie mode.
The question, of course, is what would Caso - the English-born music teacher who in 1937 sought the cure for his tuberculosis in Tucson - think about all this?
"I would say Mr. Caso would be proud," says Julian Ackerley, chorus director for the last 29 years. "He mixed Western and popular songs, too."
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It will be more of a traditional mix when the chorus performs its annual holiday concert later this month - a tradition that goes back to Christmas Eve of 1939.
That year, 10 high-pitched voices filled the air, two of them girls - the only time girls would ever sing as part of the chorus.
"When we go into the schools to audition, I always tell the girls about the Tucson Girls Chorus," says Ackerley, 55.
The walls surrounding him at chorus headquarters on East Pima Street are filled with old photographs of past chorus members - including the late John Denver and former Tucson police chief Peter Ronstadt.
Over the years, says Ackerley, "We have had hundreds of boys coming to this building from Southern Arizona, some from as far as Willcox."
Some 150 boys currently practice here in one of four choruses. Everyone begins in the training chorus, ages 8 to 11. From there, they graduate to the intermediate chorus, which gives town performances.
Next comes the touring chorus, usually made up of boys in middle school grades, who give both out-of-town and town performances.
Traditionally, the chorus was limited to boys ages 8 to 15, but in the last few years, a young men's ensemble was started for ages 15-20, when voices are usually deeper and more mature.
"With Caso, when the voices changed they were out, but I don't do that," says Ackerley. "I see a lot of value in them being part of the musical scene."
Jim Pfersdorf, the first boy recruited by Caso, still recalls when his voice started to crack.
"I don't remember the date, but I do remember it happening," says Pfersdorf, 83, who now sings in the alumni chorus. "When your voice changed, you were gone."
Sean Farley, about to turn 15 and in his fourth year in the chorus, now sings as an alto. "I am the oldest in the chorus," he says, somewhat wistfully.
Auditions are held both at schools and at various times at chorus headquarters. "They don't have to have great vocal ability. That's what we teach here," says Ackerley. "But they do have to have the ability to match pitch."
John Lazzeroni Jr., 12, an eighth-grader at Green Fields Country Day School, is in his third year in the touring chorus. When he auditioned, he went with a friend already in the chorus. "I had to do a few vocal warm-ups, a few pitches and scales," he says.
His tours include one to Kazakh- stan and the Czech Republic in 2008. Next summer, he's looking forward to a tour of South Korea, Japan and Hawaii.
With his voice already changing, he's also looking forward to graduating from the chorus after the tour and taking a year off.
"I want to play as many sports as I can," says John, who also takes piano lessons. After a year, he plans to join the young men's ensemble.
The switch might be harder on his mother than on him.
"When I found out that I was having a boy, the first words I said were, 'Thank you, God. I can now have a boy in the Boys Chorus,' " says Linda Lazzeroni.
The commitment doesn't end there. Parents are expected to coordinate carpools for the thrice-weekly rehearsals the touring chorus puts in.
Parents also join various committees. One is for the Bonanza book, a discount coupon book the chorus has sold for years. The chorus also runs a Christmas tree lot at El Con Mall.
Money raised helps pay scholarships for the various nine-month sessions, costing from $300 to $700.
Families also raise money to pay for their boys' trips, such as the one next summer, expected to cost about $3,500.
When possible, the boys live with host families during their travels. "It's really nice to see what the people are like," says John. "In Kazakhstan I ate horse sausage. And they have this certain type of slug that you dip in a sauce."
The chorus operates on an annual budget of $700,000, which pays for administrative costs to fund the program and the building. There are two full-time positions - Ackerley's and an office manager - and two part-time positions, including accompanist Marie Sierra, who goes on tour.
Chaperones on the trips include Ackerley; his wife, Jane, who is a nurse practitioner; Sierra; and tutor Wendy Pierce.
Overseas tours are shorter these days, usually no more than three weeks, and take place in the summer. U.S. tours also last no longer than four weeks, with boys coordinating homework with their teachers.
"Our teachers also give us tests which are put in a sealed envelope and given to one of the chaperones," says John. "It will be administered on the bus."
Boys must maintain a B average on their report cards, with no D's.
In seven decades of touring, there have been plenty of emergencies, including a couple of appendectomies - one in Hong Kong.
And while Ackerley admits that "boys today are exposed to so much more in the media," the essential mission of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus remains the same as it was 70 years ago.
"We are a character-building program," says Ackerley. "It's still fundamental to what we do."
So, of course, are those rope tricks.
"Everyone has to have a rope and everyone has to try to use it," says Ackerley. "It's a wonderful folk art. And with some of them, once they get a rope in their hands, you can't get it out."
On StarNet: For a pictorial history of the Boys Chorus check out azstarnet.com/slideshows
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For a pictoral history of the Boys Chorus check out azstarnet.com/slideshows