An interview article by Rosemary Phillips, August
2002
Gerald van Wyck
- Music director for the
British Columbia Boys Choir 1988-2003
Sporting his new look - cropped blonde hair - Gerald van Wyck,
in his last year as music director for the British Columbia Boys
Choir, had just returned from a European tour with the choir and
was assisting Maestro Marlin Wolfe and the Vancouver Island Symphony
with their recording when he took time out to relax, have a cup
of tea, and be interviewed for this article. (2008 - for update please see the end of the article.)
 |
| Gerald van Wyck |
“I’ll have been with the British Columbia Boys Choir
fourteen years in December,” explained Gerald with a smile.
Before moving to the West Coast sixteen years ago he studied for
his masters degree in music history at the University of Toronto,
and was an organist and conductor with a community choir. “I
put myself through university and supported my young family at the
time by running a family printing business - doing typesetting and
things like that. That was my day job. Afternoons and evenings were
spent mostly studying music.”
So how did Gerald van Wyck get started directing a boy’s
choir?
When asked how he initially started with a boys’ choir he
laughed and said, “It was very funny. My first contact ever
with a men’s and boys’ choir was while watching a church
choir in Toronto. I remember the music director was yelling at the
kids and the kids were unruly and screaming, hymn books were flying
around in the air, and it was a very violent, exuberant procedure.
I walked out of that rehearsal and went home to my wife and said,
‘If I ever suggest that I work with children, or a boys’
choir in particular, please shoot me right away and stop it right
there.’”
It’s ironical how a number of years later he found himself
working in that very situation. It was shortly after Gerald and
his family had moved to Vancouver to take up a position with the
West Vancouver United Church that Donald Forbes, the founding director
of the British Columbia Boys Choir, suffered a mild heart attack.
It was Christmas time and the choir desperately needed a conductor.
“They found three of us young conductors who were able to
take one show each. The poor choir had to survive while a new conductor
appeared at every performance. They invited me back in February
to be the interim conductor until Mr. Forbes returned.”
Gerald became assistant conductor for four years under Mr. Forbes
and learned about boys’ voices, vocal technique and group
management, and was appointed music director in 1994.
While boys in the choir have grown up and moved on since then, so
too has Gerald’s own family. “Having my own sons in
the choir, particularly my first son, going ‘through’
the choir, taught me a lot about what motivated him. I always expected
him to be in the choir and I never really dared ask him if he liked
it. I was afraid that if he said ‘No” I’d have
to let him quit. When he graduated in Grade 12, I expected to rent
him a tuxedo and he said, ‘No, I’m wearing my Boys Choir
uniform.’ Up to that point in time the high school and the
Boys Choir were the two most important things in his life.
“I asked him, ‘So why did you stick around all those
years?’
The choir as a boys’ right of passage
“He said, ‘Well, when I was a soprano and alto I had
to stick around and had to wait until I was a tenor or bass so that
I could sit at the back of the bus, travel around in groups of two
instead of groups of four, and go to bed later than the sopranos
and the altos - that I could have these privileges in Europe, and
if my parents allowed me I could have a beer. And… I could
sing the tenor and bass repertoire.’
“My son’s response taught me that becoming a tenor or
bass was a kind of right of passage for these boys.”
And in the years that Gerald has been with the Boys Choir he has
seen many rights of passage. He has also seen many boys come and
go. “For me it’s always most meaningful with the kids
I’m working with right here and right now - watching them
on a tour, just seeing them develop responsibility, develop tolerance
for each other, learn to try new foods, learn to accept new rules,
learn to work within the context of a group co-operatively.”
It’s not until an event with the Alumni Choir, such as the
upcoming 35th Anniversary concert on December 22, that Gerald will
hear, “You know, the years I travelled with this choir were
the best years of my life.” Then Gerald knows that the choir
did make a difference, it did matter in their lives.
And how does Gerald feel when he hears this? “I feel humbled.
It makes me feel very emotional. You know then it’s all worth
while, the headaches, the hard work, and the constant changes, because
the choir is constantly changing.”
BC Boys Choir is constantly changing
And as the boys change? “You feel privileged to watch it.
It’s not that you feel responsible for it. You had a part
to play in it, but so did he, so did his choir mates, and so did
his family. And you feel grateful that this organization exists
to give this opportunity, and you feel a little proud - but mostly
grateful - that you can just watch it and be an observer to this
wonderful chrysalis unfolding.”
Over the years there have been many changes? “Absolutely.
I’ve seen the choir be good for a lot of kids. I’ve
seen kids struggle in other areas in their lives, and yet the choir
has probably helped them through those areas. There’s something
about music. There’s something about a group. The choir becomes
a family to a large extent. There’s something about that group
aspect, that camaraderie… some of these guys make life-long
friends, and they keep in touch.”
BC Boys Choir - 35th Anniversary Celebration
This 35th Anniversary celebration in December will be a grand reunion.
“It’s a real treat to bring together the graduates,
the alumni of the choir, from time to time. Some of these alumni
are professionals in music, some are teachers at schools, some are
Broadway performers, some are opera chorus in Vancouver, some are
coming back from university programs, or are doctors, dentists,
artists, craftsmen - the whole gamut. It’s great to see how
they’ve grown and changed.”
Gerald himself has changed and grown from his initial experience
with a boy’s choir in Toronto about thirty years ago. His
wife didn’t shoot him and he’s still very much alive
to enjoy the thrill and passion of his work.
Time passed very quickly and Gerald had to leave the interview
to rehearse his conducting of the explosive cannon fires for the
1812 overture in the VIS Concert in the Harbour, a far reach from
conducting the harmonies of boys voices.
Gerald van Wyck has now retired from the BC Boys Choir and has handed
over the reins to artistic director Tony Araujo. Gerald is following
his dream to become an orchestra conductor. He has for the last few years been Assistant Conductor with both the Vancouver Island Symphony in Nanaimo, BC (first under the direction of Maestro Marlin Wolfe and now under the direction of Maestro Pierre Simard), and also Sinfonia, Orchestra of the North Shore, in North Vancouver BC, (under the direction of Maestro Clyde Mitchell). He has been the director for Symphony in the Harbour 2007, and also for VI Symphony concerts and Education Shows titled "Gotta Dance".
Visit
BC Boys Choir for information and
for bookings visit Caline
Artists International. Also visit
Vancouver Island Symphony and
Sinfonia.
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