Julian Ackerley instructs the combined voices of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, the Texas Girls’ Choir and the Mexico Boys Choir during the Texas trip. (Photo courtesy of the Texas Girls’ Choir.)
It’s become a University of Arizona tradition that the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus sings the national anthem before the annual Homecoming football game.
“We’ve been doing that for a couple of decades now,” said chorus director Julian Ackerley.
And that has led to a major-league opportunity.
The chorus, in the midst of a 12-day trip to Texas, will perform the national anthem before Tuesday night’s game between the Texas Rangers and the New York Mets at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.
“This year, we had the athletic department do a really nice video of us actually doing the national anthem, and we gave that video to the Texas Rangers in hopes they might select us to join them at the park,” Ackerley said.
“Ad, of course, they loved it. So we found a date that worked out and we’re really excited about it.”
The boys chorus had a concert Sunday night in Fort Worth with the Texas Girls’ Choir and Estudiantina Guadalupana Potosina (Mexico Boys Choir). The TABC sang Monday morning at Six Flags over Texas before enjoying the rest of the day at the amusement park.
Here is the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus kicking off its Texas trip last week by singing (without a warm-up) the national anthem in front of family:
