"The Choir" was made in England, where it is an award-winning hit TV series. But it premieres this week in the U.S. on BBC America, and not only is it the finest new TV show of the summer, it speaks directly to the situation of music programs in school systems like Baltimore's. If you are a music-lover, teacher or parent, this is a production not to be missed.
The reality TV series stars Gareth Malone, a boyish-looking 30-year-old choirmaster with the London Symphony Orchestra who goes into schools without singing programs and starts choral groups from scratch. His goal is to demonstrate the power of music to bring disparate and often alienated students together and transform their lives through the act of singing together.
Capturing those moments of transformation in music and song is what makes Fox's "Glee" such an uplifting and moving experience. But that's fiction. In the real world, many city schools are faced with little or no funding for such programs.
"There is a huge, huge void toward quality music education in the city of Baltimore," says Dan Trahey, who directs programs for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Peabody Conservatory that bring music into the city schools and help educate student musicians.
"I saw 'The Choir,' and it's a great show," he adds. "One thing that music is really good at is bringing people together from really diverse backgrounds. You don't have to speak the same language. You don't have to be in the same culture. When you're creating music together, all of those other things go away. And that's one of the reasons why I am in Baltimore and doing this type of work, because there is so much need for us to get together and to help each other. This is a hotbed for creativity. This is a really beautiful place for these kinds of things to be happening. We just need to do much, much more of it."
In Wednesday night's premiere, Malone arrives at Northolt High School, a comprehensive secondary school in Middlesex. There has never been a choral program at the school, and as Gareth auditions 160 potential singers, he finds no shortage of students with issues. They range from problems with authority to truancy. The classically trained choirmaster also finds a student body that has mainly been exposed only to such genres as R&B;, hip-hop, rap and nursery rhymes.
When Malone does find students of special promise, the social and home issues often make participation in the choir impossible. Fifteen-year-old Chelsea Campbell blows Malone away in her one-on-one audition, but as they chat, he finds she is being transferred out of the school within days because of "behavior issues." Malone goes to the headmaster and tries to make a difference in the student's life, but it is too late for Chelsea, even with her exceptionally promising voice.
Chloe Sullivan's story is a happier one. Again, she's a student with great promise. But she also has lots of attitude and a history of disciplinary problems. Malone commits to her with a place in the choir and private lessons, but she misses rehearsals and when she is there, she often sits like a lump looking sullen while others sing. Just as you are screaming at the TV for Malone to ditch her and move on, the patient choirmaster identifies a deeper psychological issue with the girl and finds a way to get her singing up to her potential.
Teachers are going to love and hate this show — love it for the way it celebrates what miracles a dedicated teacher can accomplish, hate it for the way it will force them to look in the mirror and ask whether they are still giving as much to their students as Malone is to his.
But it is not as much about individual students as it is about the group. In this series, the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts, and the drama comes from Malone taking groups of musically untrained students and leading them up very steep mountains.
For the Northolt Choir of 25 students, that means performing at the Choir Games in China only nine months after Malone's arrival. The Northolt students make their own uniforms for the competition, which involves some of the greatest choral groups in the world.
The drama also comes from the teacher taking his students out of pop formulas and introducing them to classical compositions. Once the students master Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Malone and his troupe tackle Vivaldi's "Gloria."
"Bringing people together for a common purpose and singing some of the most beautiful music that's ever been written — I think everyone should have access to that," Malone says.
Call it Malone's Law: You want to sing in China, you will learn to sing Vivaldi.
And they do — beautifully — in many cases surprising themselves, as they light up the stage in their self-designed Bruce Lee jackets and off-the-shoulder choral costumes.
BBC America viewers will be treated this summer to three seasons of the show, which debuted in the UK in 2006, winning back-to-back BAFTRA Awards. For the Northolt cycle, that means three episodes covering Malone's nine months at the school, plus a fourth episode that involves a follow-up to the school by Malone done one year later.
In the second cycle, titled "Boys Don't Sing," Malone signs on to teach music at a boys' school that specializes in sports. This is a tougher nut to crack than Northolt, with male physical-education teachers trying to sabotage his efforts. He brings a diverse troupe of 100 students to the Royal Albert Music Hall for a finale that will leave you in tears.
In the third cycle, "Unsung Town," Malone teaches an entire town to sing and then helps them stage a choral festival. It attracts an audience of thousands.
Larry Friend, artistic director of the Middle School for the Arts at Booker T. Washington in Baltimore, says he will be watching when "The Choir" debuts Wednesday at 10 p.m. on BBC America.
While he says the number of choral programs in Baltimore city schools "pales in comparison" to those in surrounding communities, "the quality of music that is coming from the few ensembles that we have is exemplary."
"Baltimore City College is known throughout the nation and has traveled worldwide. And Western Choir is an outstanding treble ensemble that has all-female voices and is truly an endearing and empowering ensemble."
Out of 44 high schools in the city, 13 have choral programs, according to Amy Rosenkrans, director of humanities for Baltimore's public schools. That might not sound like much, but in 2007, there were only three.
Friend says that he's been thinking about a reality show like "The Choir" himself — except his would feature church choirs in cities like Baltimore.
"I call it 'The Choir Whisperer,'" he says chuckling.
Move over, Gareth Malone.
On TV
"The Choir" airs at 10 p.m. Wednesday on BBC America.