It’s a September Saturday morning at the Cathedral Guadalupe downtown, and Cynthia Nott is surrounded by children. Dozens of fourth- through eighth-graders sit in circles, whispering, fidgeting, giggling and poking at one another. The excitement level in the room is like what you’d find at a school on field trip day.
“OK, open your books, follow along, and let’s begin,” Nott commands through the chaos. Someone strikes a note on the piano, and the room falls suddenly silent. A moment or two later, the children break into song. It is a song by Daniel Kantor called Night of Silence, overlaid with a round of the Christmas classic, Silent Night, and for a few minutes, there isn’t a peep except for the sound of the children’s voices.
Afterward, everyone in the room — children, parents, spectators and chorus directors — sits quiet and still for a few seconds.
“That was wonderful!” Nott exclaims, and the children’s faces break into proud grins. Assistant conductor Linda Harley blinks away tears and others in the room dab at the corners of their eyes.
The children in the cathedral this morning aren’t just any group of kids. They’re members of Dallas ’ six-year-old Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas, rehearsing for their winter concerts, held Dec. 6-7.
And neighborhood resident Cynthia Nott is their conductor, their leader, their teacher and their inspiration.
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In the world of children’s choral music, Dallas was far behind. Other major cities such as Houston, Los Angeles and Toronto had established their children’s choruses in the 1970s and ’80s. It wasn’t until the mid ’90s that a group of area musicians decided to do something about the lack of such a group in Dallas.
So they got together and, over the course of two years, created bylaws, wrote a mission statement, obtained non-profit status and found a rehearsal space. In time, the only thing that remained to be done before forming the chorus was finding a conductor. That’s when Nott’s name came up, says Isabelle Collora, a White Rock-area resident for more than 50 years. Collora is a longtime member of the Association for the Arts Cultures at the Cathedral (Guadalupe) and was on the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas founding committee.
“Very early on in our conversations, the name came up. Everyone said: We just have to have Cynthia Nott,” Collora says. “That was the only person people had in mind.”
Nott was a music teacher in the Richardson school district in 1996. She was thrilled not just at the offer, but at what a children’s chorus in Dallas would mean.
“There was a real need in our community,” she says. “Especially for the kids in smaller schools that don’t have choral programs. This is probably one of the few places where they’re going to get this varied experience and this incredible vocal technique.”
The group’s mission statement also impressed her, Nott says. It gave the Dallas children’s chorus a different significance than many other such choruses around the nation.
“It was twofold. Sure, they wanted the children to experience excellence in choral music,” she says, “but they also wanted the chorus to reflect the diversity of Dallas. These kids come from all over, and they’re meeting kids who are different from them socio-economically, ethnically, religiously.”
The differences create a microcosm, Nott says, that help the children learn from and get along with those different from them.
“It helps them with their approach to hard things while they’re creating great art,” Nott says. “That’s the coolest thing … it gives me the deepest satisfaction. I think the process makes them more human.”
The chorus’ diversity is accomplished by sending its audition materials to every school in the Metroplex, and about 100 kids audition every year. The chorus currently has 190 members, and some come from as far away as McKinney, Duncanville, Longview and Lewisville. Many children from our neighborhood sing in the chorus.
Nott says the acceptance rate at auditions is “very, very high.”
“It’s not about only taking the future LeAnn Rimes,” she says. “We’re really just looking for kids who have a sparkle in their eyes and love to sing and really want to learn how to sing better.
“Plus,” she says, “they have to want to work, and they have to come to rehearsals.”
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That right there, says Mindy Cunningham, mother of Lakewood Elementary sixth-grader and chorus member Katie Cunningham, is part of what impresses her about Nott.
“She’s very demanding of the children and makes them work really hard. She considers them to be a professional choir, and I’m all for that. I’m thrilled we’re having this kind of discipline.”
Katie Cunningham says that while Nott is “strict,” she’s also “funny, very nice and fun to be with.”
“I think that everybody likes Miss Nott.” Katie adds. “She just knows how to make people get together and everything.”
Indeed, in the six years since the chorus was founded, it has accomplished quite a bit. The children learn to sing in various languages, including Latin, Hebrew, Hungarian and some African dialects, and hold three regular concerts a year. They’ve also sung at many special occasions, including city council inductions, Tom Landry’s memorial service and Celine Dion’s 2001 concert. They’ve performed with the Dallas Symphony, were invited to sing at the American Choral Directors Association convention in Houston last year and, most recently, traveled to Austin to tryout for a Chili’s restaurant commercial.
Next on Nott’s list of goals? She’d like to see the chorus travel more.
“I’d personally love to get them to Europe. The great art, the great things of beauty … the experience would not be wasted on them,” Nott says. “I call it widening their eyes. Taking them to a different country would just be incredible.”
But, she says, the group hasn’t even been outside of Texas yet, and she’d be happy to just “start with a different state.”
In the meantime, Nott and her kids will keep up the hard work and Nott will keep enjoying what she calls “the best job in the whole world.”
“I guess I just love seeing kids be touched. They’re touched by music, by the experience of friendship,” she says. “They don’t articulate it. They don’t say, ‘Oh, I’m feeling so deep today. That music really took me to another level.’ But it’ll get real quiet after a cutoff, and they all just sort of sit there for a minute.
“Those moments are lasting, and that’s what will keep them singing. I really hope they keep singing for the rest of their lives.”
