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There is something uplifting in the sound of a human voices gathered together in song that has never and will never be matched by any form of organic, electronic or computer generated musical instrument or music. There’s something in that chorus of voices that reminds us of something that seems very familiar but that we may have heard first a very, very long time ago. Almost like a primitive reaction to a familiar sound.

The Ohio Boys Choir was set up to bring the enrichment of male choral music to the people of Ohio and to spread this musical gift all over America. To that end in the early 1970s the choir was set up to encourage boys from the age of 7 to participate in an activity that gave them discipline and steered them away from the less desirable aspects of life and behaviors that most teenagers can get caught up in. And at the same time these same young men were being trained to sing in a way that would serve them for many years of their young lives and beyond into their adult years.

As a result of the hard work put in by every single member the choir travelled all over the world sharing it’s musical gift to not just North America but right across Europe, including performances in Notre Dame Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral and the Franciscan Church in Salzburg, Austria and even to Australia. The choir was also non-biased and non-denominational so members were from every race, creed and financial status in the Ohio community – we only ever valued commitment to the choir and not your social standing.

As a matter of fact many of the choir members have gone one to have further success in musical careers and if nothing else they have the memories of their performances with us over the years to remind them of what a special grouping that the choir was.

Being part of a world famous choir means that you wind up travelling as part of your “job”. Now initially when we started our choral group we had no idea how quickly

it would grow or how quickly word from our fans would spread around the world. We only ever expected to be an American institution at best so we were just blown away

when we started receiving invitations from all over the world and we were especially pleased when we received an invitation to perform in Paris.

For some strange reason Americans have an affinity for Paris and for Parisians in general so our group was ecstatic to learn about our invitation to perform in Paris.

Practicing due diligence the adults of the group had to research the trip well in advance because, as we all know, travelling with a group of young kids and teenagers

can be a nightmare at times – even if they’re as well disciplined as our guys are. And it was during my general France-based research that I came across vineyards for sale in France of all things.

This surprised me because I always kinda assumed that a vineyard was a family business and it was inherited rather than bought. Then I needed to remind myself that it

wasn’t the 1700′s any more and that even then people most likely sold on their vineyards for money especially if they had no heirs to inherit them. It was still

amazing to see how complex the buying process is and that, without proper consultation, you could pretty easily wind up spending millions on a vineyard that wasn’t

worth it or that came with other unexpected complications you were never made aware of. What became clear is that you’d need help from an English speaking vineyard

expert who also knew the locale you intended buying in exceptionally well.

As you already know the Ohio boys choir has travelled a lot over the years. We’ve been to all corners of the world and seen some amazing things. Male choral music is far more popular than some people imagine and the invites still come flooding in for us to go out and perform our musical magic all over again. But as with most trips you remember some things more than others – there are those anchor memories in your mind that you can always go back to – even 10 or 20 years later. And it’s one of those memories that’s sticking in my mind now as I’m writing this.

On a trip to the United Kingdom we were expecting to have to travel between a few locations in the High Wycombe area to meet with some old friends and to attend a rehearsal by a local choir. We knew we’d need a taxi in High Wycombe to get us between these locations that we wanted to visit. That’s why we felt so fortunate when we wound up hiring the services of GoEco. Not only do they provide a taxi service but they’re also friendly to the environment too. This company is part of Neales – who are already the biggest taxi company in the High Wycombe area – but they’ve shown a new commitment to the green drive by making sure their cars drive in the greenest possible way.

It might seem like a small thing to you but when I see people embracing the need for change in how we treat planet Earth and then making those changes actually happen it always leaves a lasting impression on me. Most people look to the massive global corporations to make this change happen but the reality is that the cumulative effect of hundreds of thousands of companies taking the initiative like Neales taxis have is all it takes to change the world we live in and create the world we want for our children to live in.

On one of our many trips and tours around the world we wound up in France and were due to play in several cathedrals around the country as part of our 3 month tour. We decided as part of a well earned break from our strenuous recitals that we’d take in some of the wine country during our visit. And what better place in France to visit in terms of wine and vineyards than the Bordeaux region of the country? Beside just being an incredibly picturesque and beautiful place to visit it also boasts some of the very best wines and their parent vineyards in the entire world – for many people Bordeaux is simply synonymous with fine wines.

What was surprising to our group was the fact there were quite a few vineyards for sale in Bordeaux and the surrounding regions. It’s not that we didn’t expect to find them for sale but we’d simply never though about the fact that vineyards, like any business, obviously change hands on a regular basis for any number of reasons. And it gave some of us reason to ponder over the idea of owning our own vineyard and enjoying our own vintage in our golden years.

That aside we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to France and the rest of the tour itself. Having the opportunity to perform in Notre Dame Cathedral was both humbling and awe inspiring at the same time. The cathedral is impressive based on its exterior but it’s only when you step inside that your breath is truly taken away by the amazing stained glass work. And if you get it right and walk around there on a sunny day when the light catches the stained glass scenes the place becomes almost magical. Words can’t do the place justice – you absolutely need to see it with your own eyes.

When you’re dealing with choral music and a boys choir you need to make sure everybody’s voice is in top form for every single event that your choir sings at. To make sure that this happens you need to be sure that the environment singers are training in is as clean and dry as possible. Nothing plays havoc more with vocal chords than dampness or moisture in the air or even worse fungal matter. So when we noticed some type of water based fungus growing in the corner of our rehearsal room we knew that it was time to take action. The first step was hiring a company that deals with leak detection to track down the source of the leak without demolishing our hallowed rehearsal room – we wanted to keep it intact. Once that was achieved we could hire in a plumber to actually fix or replace the errant piping that was at fault.

Because we were expected to travel and perform internationally we needed to make sure that we could rehearse as often as possible so we wouldn’t disappoint all of our fans who had travelled so far to see us. We took a huge amount of pride in what we did as a group so we did our best to deliver an outstanding performance every single time. We felt it was the very least that our fans deserved from us. And dealing with problems in our rehearsal room as proactively and quickly as possible was part of our efforts towards being the best boy vocal choir from the Ohio area.

So if you’re part of a choir either a member or a manager then never underestimate the importance of having a properly maintained rehearsal area to work in. If you spot any signs of dampness in the room it’s important that you take care of them immediately.