Still changing lives after 40 years
 

Saturday, May 22, 2004
 

Wilma Salisbury
Plain Dealer Music Critic
 

Bill Boehm was a man on a mission 40 years ago when he founded the Singing Angels, Northeast Ohio's world-renowned youth chorus.

His goal: to protect children from what he perceived as the evils of rock  'n' roll.

His strategy: to teach them the wholesome music of his generation.

A World War II veteran, a musical-theater singer-director and a self-described square, Boehm enjoyed Broadway melodies, operetta, barbershop harmony, patriotic numbers, pop tunes, carols, folk songs and choral classics.

Much of this repertoire was old-fogey stuff to youth growing up in the 1960s.
 

But Boehm's zeal was so great, and his personality so engaging, that kids got hooked on his music and his message.
 

Over the last four decades, thousands of youngsters have won their halos as Singing Angels. But they learned more than music.
 

They also gained poise, stage presence and self-confidence. They made lasting friendships with peers of different races, religions and socio-economic classes. They toured the world as young American ambassadors. They discovered interests and skills that led to rewarding careers.
 

"It was something that impacted my life in ways I have learned to appreciate through the rear-view mirror as I get older," said Raphael Omerza, a corporate lawyer with Squire Sanders & Dempsey and president of the Singing Angels board.
 

An Angel during his teens, he developed an interest in international business and political economies as a result of the ensemble's trips to England, Wales, Mexico, China, Japan, Austria, Hungary and Germany.

Omerza and hundreds of fellow alumni will participate in the Singing Angels' 40th anniversary concert Sunday at the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square. The program, performed by 350 singers, ages 8 to 18, will feature a medley from "The Wizard of Oz" as well as barbershop harmonies, pop songs, a musical travelogue and a sing-along.
 

Boehm, now 83 and recovering from a stroke, will conduct the Angels' theme song, "Let There Be Peace on Earth," and he will lead a massed choir of kids and alumni in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
 

The remainder of the program will be conducted by Angels music director Charles Eversole, former music director Rae Rokakis, barbershop music director Jim Balaguer, founding barbershop harmony director Tom Neal and alumna Ceese Kazol-Budnik.
 

Learning self-confidence, meeting best friends
 

The homecoming concert is an emotional event for Staci Adelman Vincent, a former television journalist who ranks singing with the Angels second in importance to getting married and giving birth to two sons. "The Angels were my family," she said. "Mr. Boehm was Daddy Bill. The Angels are his children. He kind of raised us. The friends I made in the Angels remain my closest friends."
 

Although Vincent did not have one of the best singing voices in the group, she was given a chance to shine in speaking roles. Her experiences narrating a local TV special and giving an interview on Japanese television at age 17 taught her how to speak on camera and led to her 14-year career as a television reporter, producer and bureau chief in Washington, D.C.
 

Belva Denmark Tibbs, vice president of medical operations for Kaiser Permanente, gives credit to Boehm and the Angels for nurturing skills that have enabled her to speak effectively before large audiences and work harmoniously with diverse groups. "Mr. Boehm was the consummate performer," she said. "He taught me a lot about performance: how to work the crowd, smile, where to put your hands. I feel comfortable in front of people onstage."
 

Tibbs also appreciated the "integrated environment" of the Singing Angels. "The years 1966 to 1968 were turbulent times in the city of Cleveland. There were race riots. Northeast Ohio people didn't go out of their ZIP codes. I lived in the Lee-Harvard area. I didn't go to Berea or Rocky River."
 

By the time she graduated from the Angels, Tibbs had no qualms about going anywhere in the city. "I saw what happens when people get together and make harmony about the great things. It does make a difference."

The desire to leave a permanent legacy
 

Boehm and the Angels also made a difference to Kathy Sebo, cantor at The Temple-Tifereth Israel. She was on board when the ensemble made its first overseas trip, a three-week junket to Romania.
 

"It was an amazing turning point," she said. "It was an awakening to see how people live in a communist country. When the plane touched down in New York [where the Angels appeared on the 'Today' show], 80 kids broke into the national anthem. I was only 14 years old, and I felt like Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz.' There's no place like home."
 

Even more meaningful to Sebo was the Angels trip to Israel. "To go to Israel as a Jew at 18 was a thrill. The big song on the tour was 'Feelings.' I learned to sing it in Hebrew, and I was not fluent.
 

Afterwards, people came up and said, 'Your solo was so beautiful. We never heard it in Hebrew.' They knew it in English!"
 

Sebo and other alumni were acutely aware of Boehm's abhorrence of rock 'n' roll and his conviction that it would lure young people down a path of drugs and crime. But some of the Angels loved the forbidden music. They listened to it at home, attended rock concerts and sang rock songs on the tour bus. "You could still listen to it when you weren't with Bill," said Roy Kaiser, once a singing and tap-dancing Angel with his four younger brothers and now artistic director of Pennsylvania Ballet.
 

"Bill taught us so much about responsibility, dedication and commitment to music and dance. The time we spent with the choir was an incredible learning and growing experience."
 

Kaiser compared Boehm's achievement to that of Barbara Weisberger, founder of Pennsylvania Ballet. "There's a unique gene that founders have that the rest of us don't have. The level of dedication and love is phenomenal. They create something from nothing that will be here after they're gone.
 

"The Singing Angels organization is there because of Bill Boehm. He's a very special man."
 

 To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
 wsalisbury@plaind.com, 216-999-4248