Writing Services

freelance writer Rosemary Phillips

Interview Articles - Gerald van Wyck

Gerald van Wyck

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.

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 reigns to artistic director Tony Araujo. Gerald is following his dream to become an orchestra conductor. For information on the BC Boys Choir and for bookings visit Caline Artists Management.

Note: There are many more articles on this site. Follow the link to view the Index of Articles.