High Notes - Pacific Boychoir Academy

Pacific Boychoir Academy
High Notes
2015
Dear friends,
As Artistic Director, I consistently get comments from families about the
enormous opportunities that the Pacific Boychoir Academy has given their
boys. While all of these comments are unique, they all have a common
thread—their time at PBA has been a transformative experience. This past
school year, PBA cemented itself as not just one of the best boys music
programs in America, but one of the best in the world. PBA boys held their own
with some of the best boy singers in the world and side-by-side with adult
professionals as well. Even the newest boys in the after-school program get
the same training as the day school and high school boys, and gain the musical,
intellectual, and soul-satisfying benefits of our choral program.
Repeatedly, audience members and professional musicians remarked on the
amazing job the boys do with their singing. In addition to “the PBA sound”
for which we’re now well known, this year we showed great versatility in style
and dynamic contrast. Also crucially important, across the Bay and around the
world, our boys are frequently complimented on their professional work ethic
and behavior.
Everybody does their part: boys, families, staff, and supporters, but it costs a
lot to run a superior school and a world-class choir. While we run a very tight
ship, revenue from tuition provides us with the narrowest of margins above
and beyond what is needed for our operating expenses. We thank you for your
past help in building PBA into a unique place in the world. This year, with your
help, we can reach goals such as adding science lab equipment, improving our
sustainable-living projects in our gardens, upgrading our internet and phone
systems, giving our bus a new professional exterior, adding a computer
coding program for our students, and upgrading our amplification equipment
for performances. We’re eager to continue to grow and improve our academic,
musical, and character-building programs, and look forward to having your help
this year and in the future.
Sincerely,
Kevin Fox
Founding Artistic Director
The PBA Experience
From a day school to rehearsals to camps to tours to performances to
mentoring opportunities, PBA provides an extraordinary experience for
boys from age 4-18. These boys, many of whom stay in the choir for 10
years, get a world-class musical experience,
make lifelong friends, and develop
a solid academic foundation.
PBA boys perform for UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
The Choir, Concerts, and Tours
This past year, PBA performed over 70 times in the Bay Area, in other states,
in Europe, for other schoolkids, with some of the finest orchestras around, and
with other choirs at home and abroad.
PBA’s Day School
Class of 2015
Choir School
We have a vibrant and enthusiastic faculty at the top of their respective game.
Hands-on learning engages students with both the concrete and abstract lessons of the material using a sequenced and focused set of grade-level projects.
In the science lab, for instance, all of our students have worked with
superconductor magnets, seen the effects of liquid nitrogen on the density of
matter, roamed the campus neighborhood in search of urban insects (the better
to understand our local ecosystem) and more. In the other academic classes,
appropriate demonstrations, activities, discussions, writing and readings are
designed to elevate the level of student comprehension.
Please join us to bring this delightful school to the next level of greatness.
Salvatore Michael Trento, Head of School
Support the PBA experience!
You can be part of PBA’s future success. Your tax-deductible donation will help
PBA offer this opportunity to as many boys as possible, and continue to set a
high standard for academics and choral singing. You can identify an area where
you would like to see your donation applied, such as financial aid, concert
sponsorship, academic supplies, professional development, or music supplies.
Online:
PacificBoychoirAcademy.org/Support-PBA
By check:
Pacific Boychoir Academy, 215 Ridgeway Avenue, Oakland, CA 94611
Pacific Boychoir Academy
Excellence in education and performance
www.PacificBoychoirAcademy.org • 510-652-4722
215 Ridgeway Avenue • Oakland, CA 94611