The boys of The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the girls of the San Francisco Girls Chorus awakened at 4 am and boarded buses and met in one of the massive parking lots of the Pentagon. Their buses, searched by K-9 corps dogs, formed into a convoy of three (two for the boys, one for the girls. Their drivers told “stop for nothing, pass through all red lights,” they set out in a convoy escorted by a phalanx of Capitol police, side-car motorcycle police in the back and front – all intersections blocked for them as they sped through the darkened city with lights flashing and sirens blaring. I was with the boys and I can tell you from personal experience, it is something that a 9-year old boy would only dream about. More than one little guy told me that he would remember this day when he was 90.
Preparing for a wild ride to the Capitol
Dawn turned the sky a slight blue as we arrived at the US Capital, bathed in stark white spot lights. The boys finished their brown paper bag breakfasts prepared by the US Marines and then filed through the Russell Senate building metal detector, where once on the other side, they joined the Girls of the Girls chorus in the marble columned and red velvet press room to warm up and run through their program.
Then through another set of metal detectors and out into the fresh dawn to make their way through a gauntlet of cordons and police to the Senate side of the Capital building and out into the bleachers where perhaps a million people stood patiently waiting on the Mall for the program to begin.
Perhaps you saw them – a sea of red caps and red scarves just above where the dignitaries sat, flanked by huge flags hanging from the Capital building itself.
They took their places next to three chairs saved for Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Violinist Itzhak Perlman, Clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gabriela Montero and above the spot where Barack Obama would take the oath of office in two short hours. (Later, Yo-Yo Ma waved at the boys and girls, and they waved back).
And then a voice boomed over them, “Ladies and Gentleman … and gave their two names, Boys Chorus Artistic Director Ian Robertson (joined on the stand by Boys Chorus Artistic Director Susan McMane) had the boys and girls stand and the first words of “America the Beautiful” rolled out across the two mile expanse before them, the mall. And the words reverberated back to them, echoing and rolling off of the buildings of the Smithsonian Museums, and up and the buildings of Pennsylvania Avenue to the right and Constitution Avenue to the left, two canyons of white buildings. And before them the towering, simple Washington Monument, flanked far in the distance by the Low, Rectangular Lincoln Memorial. And when they finished, thousands, perhaps a million voices cheered. The boys had been told that today the represented the people of San Francisco, of California, of the United States of America --- and of all children their ages, and I think this made an impression. They sang for 20 minutes, including a special piece composed by David Conte for the occasion, “An Exhortation” featuring the words of Barack Obama. David joined the boys and girls, appearing at Union Station miraculously as the buses pulled in to link up seamlessly.
It was crisp with wispy high ice clouds and it was cold – perhaps 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and yet the boys and girls, with their long underwear, their hand and foot warmers bore it well, alternatively sitting on their benches, or standing on their seats and cheering – as the occasion demanded!
Barack Obama waved at them after taking the Oath
Then the Marine band, and elegant trumpeters with their long lute-like horns, Arthera Franklin, Yo-Yo ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill, Gabriela Montero with fanfares for former presidents and vice presidents until they got to the President Elect, Barack Obama. President Bush turned and gave them a wave. And then the boys and girls looked on, standing on their seats, as Barack Obama took his oath and became their President… and the cannons boomed.
There was much more, and then the filed out of the stands and quickly back to their busses, their passage interrupted by beat of blades and the emergence of the huge presidential helicopter, now former President George Bush lifting above the capitol and above the boys and girls as he made one last flight to his waiting plane.
Former Pre. Bush lifts off
The boys somehow made it through the crowds to make their 4:30 pm flight, the girls planned to stay another day to perform in the capitol. An extraordinary day, something that a 9- year old boy, a 13 year-old girl and those of us a little older.. will remember for a lifetime.
For me personally, it was an honor to see the new dawn, literally and figuratively. To start with a police escort and to end with an afro American woman weeping with joy and a boy telling me, "I will remember this when I am 90."
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