Paulist Choristers of Chicago

              America's Greatest Boy Choir
 Paulist Choristers OF CHICAGO 100 BOYS and MEN 
Father O'Malley
 CONDUCTOR 
Concerts Radio Recitals


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W G N TALENT DIVISION 441 NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE SUPERIOR 0100 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS



For Dates and Terms Apply to, J. C. McMANAMAN, Manager, 911 So. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill.





What The Critics Say



John S. Egilsrud,
 THE MINNEAPOLIS MORNING TRIBUNE


The singers exhibited all the qualities for which the choir is celebrated—an indescribable flow of smooth tones, an immaculate balance of parts, and a great range of voices from the sweet, flute-like boy-sopranos to the sonorous basses.  With the stylistic authority of a profoundly learned and inspired musician, Father O'Malley took the singers through works from the greatest schools of composers of the fifteenth to the eighteenth century.




Grace Davies,
 THE MINNEAPOLIS TIMES-TRIBUNE


The freshness and charm of the young voices and the vigor of the older members, with which they attacked the revered classics of the church, some of them almost unsingable, their unfailing precision, and beautifully released phrases, were all marks of cultural attainment.




John K. Sherman,
 THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR-JOURNAL


Rev. Eugene O'Malley is an accomplished director who has developed something near to perfection in purity of tone, balance between choirs and polish of interpretation.  The devotional approach to the sacred music was unmistakable, and it had greater power over the hearer in its complete lack of effects for their own sake.  Chiefly remarkable were the boys' unit and the juvenile counter-tenors, who are 'graduated' to the alto group when their voices are in process of change.  Here there was the most uncanny translucence of tone, like the upper registers of an organ—a flute-like sound without a trace of vibrato.




Frances Boardman,
 THE ST. PAUL DISPATCH


Father O'Malley is a fine musician, and his choral discipline is beyond criticism—a particularly flattering state of things under the special set of circumstances with which he works.  Many directorial problems are posed by the combination in one singing unit of little boys and mature men, with every intermediate age level represented.  It means dealing simultaneously with widely varying types of vocal mechanism, physical set-up, and mental development, to achieve musical effort directed toward the single purpose of doing well by the music.  This is far from easy, and Father O'Malley has done it in an expert way.




William Smith Goldenburg,
 CINCINNATI ENQUIRER


Their capacity for sustaining pitch, controlling tone through various degrees of volume and interpreting with nicety of shading and phrasing, displayed in many a capella composition, made the occasion pleasurable and profitable.




Theodore Sponagle,
 CINCINNATI FREIE PRESSE


Those wonderfully pure soprano voices seemed not to pour out of the throats of the boys, but out of some indefinable, transcendental unity.




Glenn Dillard Gunn,
 Critic WASHINGTON TIMES-HERALD


I regard it as the greatest organization of its kind that I have heard either here or abroad.




DuB. C.,
 THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS


It is difficult to be descriptive and analytical regarding the music produced by this remarkable group.  The absolute certainty of the choral attack, performance and pitch seem to rise above the realm of human fallibility and the beauty of the effect is breath-taking.  Under direction of Father Eugene O'Malley this assemblage of boys and men has been integrated into a perfect musical unit.




THE GRAND RAPIDS HERALD


Undoubtedly the most distinctive feature of this fine organization is its boy choir, the exquisite trebles and altos, but the whole choir is an admirably balanced organization, schooled to an accuracy rarely attained by any chorus … The management of dynamics in this number (The Day of Judgment), the sweeping climaxes attained, the variations in tone color in the different parts were highly impressive.




Ann McKeough,
 THE GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE


Father Eugene O'Malley, choir director, played upon his 100 voices like an organist upon a great instrument.  He snapped on the flute, echo, dulciana and diapason stops with discreet touch, blended them into great organ chords, pressing down and releasing the crescendo pedal delicately but steadily, sustained his final notes to bring out their full harmony, and ended each selection with another snap.




MUSICAL AMERICA


Under the scholarly and inspiring leadership of Father Eugene O'Malley, the chorus again manifested its supremacy in the field of polyphonic music.  Beauty of tone in the boys' voices, and perfect understanding of the demands of the idiom, make the work of this choir outstanding in both ancient and modern ecclestical works.




René Devries,
 THE MUSICAL COURIER


Since Father O'Malley took charge (twelve years ago), the Paulist Choristers have grown immeasurably and stand unrivalled among similar choirs.  Orchestra Hall, filled for their annual concert, resounded with as fine singing as we have heard in a long while.




Edward Barry,
 CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE


The Choristers can shape a phrase so eloquently and preserve the beauty of its texture so ably that a listener is ready to vow to himself that this and nothing else is the perfection of choral singing.




Claudia Cassidy,
 CHICAGO JOURNAL OF COMMERCE


In accuracy of pitch, brilliance of attack and warmth of tone, it has no rival … In its natural field of liturgical music it develops a voluminous softness and an almost celestial organ tone, with the fluted sweetness of the boys' voices soaring like some strange instrument over the massed colorings of tenors and basses.
Father O'Malley works like a painter, choosing his voices for the purity and texture of their color and arranging them for the vibrant qualities of contrasting tone.  In the polyphonic motets that opened the concert he achieved magnificent results immaculate in pitch and gleaming in polished perfection.  If ever a choir deserved the word celestial this is the one.



Herman Devries,
 THE CHICAGO HERALD-AMERICAN


The most difficult program they have ever given and the best singing they have ever done indicate that the Paulist Choristers have no rival in America in their particular field today.  The entire program was beset with difficult and problematic chorals which the singers encompassed with ease, tonal beauty and great effects.




Robert Pollak,
 THE CHICAGO DAILY TIMES


At Orchestra Hall there was genaine music.  Father O'Malley and the Paulist Choir spent the pre-intermission period delivering masterworks of Hassler, Vittoria, Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso.  This year's Paulist contingent sings with admirable balance and purity.  The body of sixteenth century sacred and secular music is as glorious as it is neglected.  We are fortunate to have O'Malley and his boys in our community to revivify it once in awhile.




Eugene Stinson,
 THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS


This event always has a great deal of human interest, all boys' choirs have it in fact.  But the musical interest in Father O'Malley's performance is always of the finest sort and this year it even exceeded the standard set by one of the most original, learned and capable choral specialists known to Chicago.  The blending of the voices is superb.  And Father O'Malley's vindication—if he wants one—for his system of voice production for boys is to be found in the beautiful results obtained by imposing it too upon his basses.  The mature voices in his choir now have the same softness and glow that gives so ethereal a quality to his boys' soprano and countertenor.  In addition to this he conducts with a very fine sense of phrasing, so that voices move strongly yet flexibly against each other.  And this movement, accentuated by the beauty of tone he achieves marks a most profoundly impressive mastery of polyphonic choral conducting.




Russell McLauchlin,
 DETROIT NEWS


Precision and balance and just modulation of tone were as evident in balladry and thoroughly modern arrangements as they were in Bach.




Alfred F. Pahlke,
 MILWAUKEE JOURNAL


The visit reminded us, if we were in danger of forgetting, that America too may boast of first class boy choirs, and that Vienna and Dresden have no monopoly on this product.  What is more, the Chicago boys, who have long since achieved fame, are in a class by themselves as expounders of ancient music of the golden age of vocal counter-point.  Prodigious scholarship, besides hard training, goes into their work.  When their director, the Rev. Eugene F. O'Malley, stepped on the stage of the Auditorium, we looked up to him with some awe.  Here is a man who carries around probably far more learning than the average choral conductor, who knows all there is to be known about polyphonic music, about madrigals and motets, about the old masters of the Italian, Spanish and German schools, and their points of difference, about bel canto and the production of tone color that make up the gorgeous patterns of florid part songs.  To those alive to the beauty of 'horizontal' music there are thrills in nearly every number.  An alto phrase will shoot forth where you least expect it; a soprano and counter-tenor will give a long drawn flute effect in octaves, there is no end to the symphonic combinations thought out for every line.




E. P. H.,
 MILWAUKEE SENTINEL


The almost ethereal voices of the boys seemed like the disembodied harmony of a celestial choir.




MUSIC NEWS


Here is the distinct metier of the Paulists—a tone of pearly purity, floating or surging, soaring or evanescent, delicate inflection of suggestion and moods of authoritative power—always exultant with spiritual grasp to awaken emotion in human souls.




E. F. S.,
 MUSICAL LEADER


It is the closest approach to perfect choral ensemble I have heard anywhere.




Father O'Malley and his Paulist Choristers use the Conover Piano Exclusively






The Conductor



Father Eugene F. O'Malley, showed a marked musical ability at an early age.  For many years he served as a chorister in the choir he now conducts.  It was during this choristership under Father Finn, the founder of the Paulist Choristers, that Father O'Malley decided to devote his life to ecclesiastical and musical studies.  In the year 1918 he went to New York with Father Finn to assist in the establishment of the Paulist Choristers in that city.  As assistant conductor of the Paulist Choristers of New York and organist and choirmaster of one of the large churches of that city, Father O'Malley, then sixteen years of age, gained considerable local prominence.  He soon organized a choir of sixty boys and men that merited praise.  After a period of study in this country he went to Europe in 1925 to observe the choral methods of the Old World and to study with renowned masters of England and the Continent.  Upon his return to this country in 1928 he was appointed conductor of the Paulist Choristers of Chicago and organist of Old St. Mary's Church, the home of the famous choir.  In addition to his regular appearances with the Paulist Choristers in church and concert work, Father O'Malley each year accepts a limited number of engagements as guest conductor and lecturer.  His special courses for choral conductors, organists and choirmasters have been beneficial to many musicians throughout the country.



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The
 PAULIST 
Choir
 …



~ Was organized by Father Finn in 1904 and remained under his direction for fourteen years.


~ Has been heard in every important musical center of this Continent.


~ Gained national repute in 1910 by being awarded the first prize in the division of Boy Choirs at the National Contest in Philadelphia.


~ Made a sensational European Tour in 1912 and was given a private audience by Pope Pius X.


~ Gained international fame by being awarded the prize in the Division of Honor in the International Competition in Paris in 1912.


~ Toured the United States and Canada in 1918, singing 238 concerts in 113 cities for the benefit of stricken France.


~ Has appeared in concerts before Presidents of the United States and Crowned Heads of Europe.


~ Has donated its services to both Federal and Civic projects.  Among these may be mentioned:  
The Federal Liberty Loan Campaign
 in 1918, 
A Century of Progress
 at Chicago, Mayor Kelly's 
Night of Stars (Xmas Benefits)
 since 1933 and 
President Roosevelt's Birthday Party
 in Chicago in 1935.


~ Is acknowledged by competent critics to be one of America's foremost choirs and one of the greatest boy choirs of the world.


~ During the World War sang concerts for the soldiers and sailors in many training camps throughout the Country.


~ Has inspired the organization of many similar choral bodies throughout the United States and Canada.