Singing soprano is for girls only in Texas' All-State Choir, eliminating a 17-year-old boy's chance to audition for a statewide honor and raising questions about gender and vocal performance.
The Texas Music Educators Association denied a petition by Mikhael Rawls of suburban Fort Worth to audition this fall for the elite ensemble as a soprano, a part traditionally sung by girls.Rawls sings countertenor, a little known male voice part that has surged in popularity in classical and operatic circles in the past decade. He can sing an octave and a half higher than most boys his age, and he feels most comfortable singing in that range. He has even won first place as a soprano in the University Interscholastic League's competition two years in a row.
The association, however, does not allow boys to sing soprano, or alto or girls to sing tenor or bass. Association spokeswoman Amy Lear said the group adopted the rule two years ago because of concerns that girls auditioning for tenor parts were hurting their voices by singing too low.
"If you make a rule one way it has to work both ways,"
Actually, no you don't have to make it both ways. On the one hand, you have individuals being harmed by exceeding their abilities. On the other, you have someone trying to sing in their natural range. No reasonable judge in the world would see it differently.
Oh, that's right, I just used a non-sequiter -- "reasonable judge".
The young man, though, hits the nail right on the head in his letter to the association.
"This is an education association that is supposed to be fostering and developing young singers," said Maguire, who wrote a letter to the Texas group urging them to approve Rawls' petition. "Keeping someone from singing what is essentially natural to them is not fostering them."
Fortuantely, colleges are already looking at this fine young man. He'll get to sing on the college level -- and well beyond, if I do not miss my guess.
Good luck, Mikhael! I long to hear your voice some day.