August 23, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Photograph by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe
Not many people in Massachusetts speak Maori. But thanks to Boston City Singers, the New Zealand language is heard more often there than you might think.
Boston City Singers provides music education and organizes choirs for children ages 5 to 18 in the city’s rough Dorchester neighborhood. The younger children perform four concerts per year, while high-school choruses sing up to 20 times annually at various events.
And when the singers perform, audiences often hear a little Maori: The group’s signature song is “Tutira Mai Nga Iwi” (“People are standing in rows”). It’s a popular tune among the indigenous people of New Zealand, says Jane E. Money, the group’s artistic director (and a Kiwi herself).
Ms. Money has led Boston City Singers since its founding in 1995. She says the group is serving 260 children this year at schools and community centers in Dorchester and will expand to serve 300 next year.
At the least, students take away lessons about cooperation and hard work. But, Ms. Money says, many stick with music: “Some will sing in college choirs, and some even study music in college.”
Boston City Singers runs on $300,000 per year, with 40 percent of that money coming from foundations, an additional 40 percent from gifts, and most of the rest from other fund raising and student tuition. The group also performs in benefit concerts for groups like Doctors Without Borders, and Ms. Money encourages children to do community service.
Here, members of Boston City Singers perform “Can You Hear Me?,” a song about a deaf child that includes lines in sign language.
