Francisco: We do have at least two other programs in the United States and the one in the Dominican Republic. There’s one in Erie, Pennsylvania, the YPC of Erie, run by Penn State Erie, The Behrend College and another in Tenafly, New Jersey—the Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer—led by one of our alumni. Each program has about 150 children. There are many other cities that have asked us to implement the YPC approach. They want the opportunity to use choir as a means to change society. That’s what it’s about—the ability to use music to effect societal change.


Barbara: How do you approach the choral experience for your choir students? In other words, what happens in your typical choir rehearsal? Does your approach differ from other choral methods?


Francisco: Different? Well, I can’t compare our rehearsals with others. I’ve seen some wonderful choral conducting as I travel. What we do as choral conductors is based on our own philosophies. YPC is based on my philosophy. It all depends on your mission; everyone’s mission is unique. My philosophy is to bring people together to sing music of high quality. Of course, I have my own special style, conducting music from Bach to bebop.


Barbara: I noticed lots of movement in the video clips found on the YPC website. Do you create all the choreography? How does this process occur?


Francisco: At YPC we move a lot. I’m comfortable with motion and rhythm. When my children sing, they move. As a singer, you tighten up when you don’t move. Actually, when I think about it, I have never seen a great performer be entirely stiff. Great pianists move, great instrumentalists, violinists, they move. Yes, all move in their own unique way, but they move! Now, our choreographed numbers are a different matter. We add choreography when we think it fits the music. Sometimes we’ll do the choreography ourselves, and other times we’ll bring in a special choreographer to work with the choir.


Barbara: In your sessions at the Michigan Music Conference (MMC) you mentioned the phenomena of the current entertainment expectations of today’s audiences, asking us what were we missing as choral conductors. What recommendations do you have for choir directors and music teachers to better


meet these challenges?


Francisco: Well, I don’t think we should think of a choir as one single performance or one concert. A choir’s identity should not be the one concert but a series of concerts over time. We often get stuck in titles or labels. Nothing is wrong with a choir standing still as they sing; it all depends on the music. If you were singing rhythmic songs, you might want some movement. On the other hand, if you were performing a solemn work, no one would think you had to add movement. There’s also the matter of time. A choir conductor has to look at how much rehearsal time they will have, which affects the planning of the entire program. What can we do with the time we have? Someone who sees his students 45 minutes twice a week will not be able to provide the same education as a choir that meets every day for an hour. Every choir is different, and every concert is different. The choral conductor has to see the educational environment. We are teachers first. We need to ask ourselves: “How do you produce music for today’s audiences?” Also, I believe students should learn major pieces from the choral repertoire. They should know Handel’s Messiah. They should know, for example, the works of Bach when they leave college. We need to give it these masterworks to our young people. Music teachers need to know how to lead students to a performance and how to educate. That is the challenge before us.


Barbara: Would you be willing to share some of your most memorable experiences as founder of the YPC?


Francisco: There are so many stories, so many. We forget them sometimes, but we shouldn’t forget. I can share the story of one student, Mike, who had a friend in a gang who got shot. His friend didn’t die, but he was shot. Mike was in high school at that time and had not joined the gang, but was thinking about it. He had to make a choice. At that time, he had a flyer in his pocket about the YPC. He knew he needed to belong to a group for protection. It could be the gang or it could be YPC. He auditioned and was accepted, with his new YPC friends encouraging him to reject the gangster lifestyle, giving him good advice. Mike stayed in the program for four years, went on to college and got married. Later on he shared with me, “I had a choice and I joined YPC. It saved my life.”


Barbara: Francisco, would you like to share any other thoughts with our readers?


Francisco: As teachers we can be the best gift to our students by being great musicians. We need to be smart. We need to be smart musicians. We need to remember that our students learn from us by watching and listening to us, not just by what we tell them to do. We need to strive for excellence and know about beauty and great art. Often, in schools, music teachers feel like they’re done. They have their degrees, they’ve done their studying, and now they’ve been teaching for fifteen years. We shouldn’t settle for that. As teachers, we need to learn how to perform better. I believe the best teachers are also the best performers. Remember, our kids are watching and listening to us. We need to know how to keep our artistry strong—that’s the real teacher. You take a young pianist to a concert and have her listen to all the pianists and then ask afterward, “Which one would you like to study with?” She’s going to want to study with the greatest pianist she heard that evening. That’s the one she wants to learn from; it makes sense. We need to learn how to become better musicians--- that is the challenge for us.


Tommasini, Anthony (February 17, 2012). Fresh Music and Spice, Stirred Up With Batons: A Symposium for Young People’s Chorus and New Conductors. The New York Times (retrieved at http://www. nytimes.com/2012/02/18/arts/music/a- young-peoples-chorus-symposium. html?_r=1)


Notes for 1. . . Carnegie Hall, through the Weill Music Institute, to collaborate with Mr. Núñez and the chorus in a new symposium to train choral conductors. The goal was to give 8 conductors selected from more than 50 applicants some intensive experience in performing challenging new choral music with student ensembles. New music has been a passion for Mr. Núñez through his chorus’s Transient Glory program. Since 2001 he has requested, encouraged, pleaded with and all but shaken down composers everywhere to write works for the Young People’s Chorus. There have been some 60 premieres so far. Several more short works are being added to that tally through the symposium, a series of three varied programs at different halls. . . . n


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