Day School Music

Some schools have a choir, but a choir school is a school where all the students sing as part of the choir. Institutions for boy choristers date at least back to the fourth century AD. In Europe, boys have been trained as singers for centuries, and their musical studies coordinated with their academic studies.

Pacific Boychoir Academy is modeled after the successful choir schools that exist around the world today, such as the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School in South Africa, and the Vienna Boys’ Choir School. Choir schools are very common in Europe, and there are choir schools around the world. While most of these are boarding schools, PBA, however, is not a boarding school, because talented singers live right here in the Bay Area.

Because boys’ voices last only until they are 13 or 14, a more intense musical program allows them to do as much as possible with their voices before they change. The finest boys’ choirs in the world are those where the boys attend the same school because the unified scheduling allows them to rehearse every day, just as one should practice anything every day to truly excel. When boys in the school go through voice change, they will be taught to sing tenor and bass with the other boys, and with the high school choristers.

 

Our Troubador Program

PBA choristers in the day school are in the ensemble Troubadors. As members of a Grammy Award-winning boychoir, our boys have access to unique travel and performance opportunities. Troubadors visit countries all around the world and learn about cultures very different from their own. They learn music, both sacred and secular, in foreign languages and from all historical periods. Most importantly, they learn to be good citizens of their community and their world. PBA students are the tenors, baritones, and basses of tomorrow. They will carry on the great tradition of choral music for audiences everywhere. A music education now leads to a commitment to the arts for a lifetime.