Name: VIC OAKES • Age: 34 • Bio: As executive director of the Chattanooga Boys Choir, Vic Oakes is gearing up for the 50th anniversary performance of the Singing Christmas Tree, an annual holiday favorite for Chattanooga featuring a tower of choir members serenading the audience from above. Having been with the Chattanooga Boys Choir for 10 years, Oakes strives to brings fresh ideas and opportunities for his young and talented choir members, from commissioning brand new pieces of music to performing in other countries and cultures.
The Singing Christmas Tree has been around for 50 years. It has been typically and traditionally the start to the holiday season for all of Chattanooga since it was started in the 1960s. The program now has a theme every year. We’d never pretend that if you go once you never need to go again because every year is different. In my time with the choir, we’ve had an Appalachian Christmas tree, Christmas carols from around the world and music from the “Polar Express.”
This year our theme is our 50th anniversary. Through social media and a couple of other outlets, we’ve harkened back to alumni from years past and asked for favorite memories. We got responses about some of their favorite songs and pieces from the tree, so we are going to do several of those. Alumni who come this year will definitely find something from their past.
While we are looking into the past, at the same time we will also certainly keep our eye looking forward. We have actually commissioned a piece this year. It’s a cool thing – to sing a piece of music that is written just for the choir, that’s never been sung or recorded before. About every other year we are doing something like that and the boys really seem to get that it is a huge deal to get to perform a piece of music that’s never been sung before.
I’ve been glad to look back on the history that they’ve already had long before me and see what I can do to shake things up going forward, kind of making it more applicable to current times yet also respecting the traditions that got them this far. We have, over the course of 10 years that I’ve been with the Chattanooga Boys Choir, been able to do a lot of great things, from innovative programming to concert tours to commissioning new pieces – lots of things that are representative of a choir that’s really current, really trying to keep up with the way that things are going with children and singing today.