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Changing the lives of children through music |
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Changing the lives of children through music |
"Jody really has a genius way of teaching, of being able to get inside the mind of a child and know what will reach them."
"The annual Jordan Hall concert by the PALS Children's Chorus under Johanna Hill Simpson last Saturday afternoon reaffirmed the group's commitment to social issues, to new music by local composers, and to overall standards of artistic excellence...the level of performance was scrupulously high." Boston Globe, March 7, 2003
"PALS founder and artistic director Johanna Hill Simpson led a vital and exciting performance...PALS events are invariably inspiring because of the level of performance but depressing because there aren't more organizations like PALS. All these talented youngsters come from an after-school program in a single Brookline school. Other talented students exist in every other school, but there are not enough Johanna Simpsons to go around." Boston Globe, March 22, 2002
"..these kids really do sing well, and have really worked the music honestly and rigorously, like professionals...there was unspeakable beauty in the depth of effort, and their accomplishment as musicians was estimable." Boston Globe, January 11, 1999
"And there was a sterling contribution from the remarkable children's chorus Johanna Hill Simpson has trained in her after-school program at the Lincoln School in Brookline...the healthy extrovert sound these children made seemed more appropriate to this context than the ethereal British boy-choir sound favored on recordings....And one wished that the BSO's youth concert audiences could have heard the children's thrilling contribution to the mighty stride of the final hymn. Too often youngsters are confronted with instrumental prodigies who can be hard to relate to; this performance demonstrated that most children, properly trained, are capable of high-level musical performance that brings satisfaction to themselves and to others." Boston Globe, January 24, 1997