Ben Liebenberg AP
Eagles Patriots Super Bowl Football
They were escorted by motorcade to the Super Bowl, and had a crowd of people waiting to cheer them on in the tunnel at U.S. Bank Stadium. They aren’t the Philadelphia Eagles or the New England Patriots. They’re the kids of local youth choirs, Angelica Cantanti and ComMUSICation who scored the honor of singing “America the Beautiful” with Broadway star Leslie Odom Jr.
The 59 local students, ages 12 to 16, who performed with Odom Jr. come from two very different local choirs. Angelica Cantanti, now in its 37th year, is an award-winning children’s choir program dedicated to providing high-quality choral music education and performance for grades 2-12. These kids come from all over the Twin Cities, from Roseville to Bloomington and everywhere in between.
Now in its fourth year, ComMUSICation is an intensive after-school, choral-based youth development program serving families in St. Paul’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. It accepts all students—and currently has students with seven different primary languages spoken at home—and strives to attain artistic excellence through its frequent performances and removal of access barriers. Prior to Sunday, most of the ComMUSICation students had never even performed in anything larger than a school play.
ComMUSICation founder and executive director of Sara Zanussi says her choir was not only excited about the opportunity to perform at the biggest sporting event of the year, with Odom Jr., but also about the chance to collaborate with an experienced choir like Angelica Cantanti.
“To see all those youth come together for the common goal of making music together, that was my favorite part,” Zanussi says. “And our choir is not a choir that would usually be auditioned for big opportunities like this, and so the fact that Leslie Odom Jr. and the NFL had this vision to really represent the diversity and true representation of the Twin Cities the way they did is huge.”
Odom Jr., best known for his originating role as Aaron Burr in the Broadway blockbuster Hamilton, won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album as a principal vocalist.
Audrey Riddle, executive director of Angelica Cantanti, said that Odom Jr. was highly focused and set a great example for their kids of how to perform as a professional. They’re hoping for a chance to spend more time with him when he’s back in the Twin Cities in March for his performances with the Minnesota Orchestra.
After their pre-game performance, choir kids got to watch the Super Bowl (and JT!) from the field, which both choir directors agreed was probably the most exciting part of the whole day for their kids.
Says Zanussi, “We were all pretty much pinching ourselves, making sure it wasn’t a dream.”
Odom Jr.’s single of “America the Beautiful” accompanied by the choirs is now available on iTunes. All proceeds go to the I Have a Dream Foundation, an organization working to ensure that all children have an equal chance to pursue higher education.
