BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NORWOOD -- About 110 rather vocal boys are moving into a new home on Mills Avenue here.
The Cincinnati Boychoir, founded in 1965, has finally found a permanent home after 33 years of moving from place to place.
The group has just purchased the former Norwood Pentecostal Church building at Mills and Allison avenues for $107,000. The church congregation outgrew the building and moved.
"We have had 14 different homes (since being founded) -- leased places, schools, churches -- and we finally found a place within our budget, in good shape and centrally located," said Randall N. Wolfe, managing director of the choir. The group has been rehearsing at the Wyoming Arts Center.
Mr. Wolfe said the 100-year-old, three-story, 900-square-foot church building was ideal for the group's rehearsal needs and for offices and storage space for the nonprofit organization. It will accommodate about 80 people for practices. There will be no performances at the church.
The final hurdle for the purchase was passed Wednesday when the city's board of zoning appeals granted a variance to permit the choir to locate in a residential zone. The vote was 4-0 with one board member absent, city officials said.
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TO HELP
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Anyone wishing to donate to help pay off the building should make checks payable to the Cincinnati Boychoir and mail to:
Wendy Relation
Administrator/Development Director
10608 Buttercreek Lane
Cincinnati 45249. |
Mr. Wolfe said the choir put down about $27,000 on the building and must continue to raise funds to pay off the mortgage and maintain the facility. However, no increase in tuition -- $125 to $175 -- is expected.
"With boys coming from all over Greater Cincinnati and as far as Batesville, Ind.; Wilmington; Middletown; Hamilton; Georgetown; Felicity; Northern kentucky, this is centrally located and near the interstate" highways, Mr. Wolfe said.
The choir is a prestigious group of boys 8 to 13 years old who are recommended by school music teachers for their musical and leadership skills. Some members are from church choirs, orphanages and boys clubs.
The group is the only boychoir chosen to perform at the Choral Directors Association national convention in Chicago in February. Only 29 choirs out of 5,000 were chosen to perform, Mr. Wolfe said. Norwood Vice Mayor Jane Grote said the city is "looking forward to the choir moving in. We are proud they have chosen Norwood and the former church for their permanent location. They are a very prestigious group."
The Cincinnati Boychoir has performed several times with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It has also appeared with the Cincinnati Opera and in New York City's Carnegie Hall.
Concert tours have taken the group to 17 states, Germany, Austria and Canada, Mr. Wolfe said. The boys make 30 to 50 performances a year.
