Anthony White Reveals Detroit Youth Choir’s New Collab With Skilla Baby, Golden Buzzer On AGT + More
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what's epistey up with the Angela Yee?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Angela Yee, And today we are honored to have
Anthony White with us, the artistic director for the Detroit
Youth Concert Choir and Performing Arts Company.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yes, yes, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Oh I'm great. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Thanks for having me? I'm fine. I've been wanting to
meet you alone for a long time. So yeah, I'm
glad I'm here.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm so listen and you're here because you guys have
Disney Plus docu saries called choir. Yes, before we start, though,
I do want to give my condolences. Oh yeah, I
see you have your Lions.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yes, the Lions. Uh yeah, Well, you know we were
we wanted to hit that Super Bowl real tough and
maybe we could have got like a little, you know
spot somewhere.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I would have been Yeah, I know, but you.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Know we well we're we're still d y C.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So let me ask you what would what was it
like in the city that night?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Wow? Pandemonium. The city really needed that because for a
long time, you know, the Lions have been struggling, and
you know, we were a part of that because we
did the halftime show. A couple of weeks ago at
their first playoff game thirty plus year yep, d I see,
(01:23):
and the city was just crazy. You know, I really
love that the way people receive the Lions again, just
the way they receive us to you know, Detroit is
a real you know all about it. Detroit is a
real strong city. You know, we love hard. So that's
(01:43):
pretty much what happened with that.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
You know, the work that you do is so important.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And I think when people watch this docuseriies and it's
out now, yes, out now on diny plus all six episodes,
you can watch and you get so invested in the story.
And I think it's so interesting talk about the Detroit
Youth Contac Choir because you guys definitely hit the spotlight
when you were on America's Got Talent. Yes, that was
a nationwide, worldwide people recognizing. I mean that was an
(02:12):
emotional when you guys how many people from the choir
were on America's Got Talent.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
So we took fifty two young people to LA And
if it wasn't for Terry Crews hitting that golden buzzer,
we wouldn't be in the spot that we're in. And
shout out to Simon and the rest of that panel.
How we Gabrielle Union was actually on that panel, and Terry,
I mean they were like having sent for us.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Terry Crews was like every single one of them represents me,
yes in history, and I think people felt so connected
when they saw that, because if you never heard of
the Detroit Youth continc Choir dyc right, then it was
like amazing. Even seeing Simon put his fist in the air, he.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Was like that Simon, all right, yeah, I loved us.
Simon was actually brought to Tears our last visit on
agt All Stars. We did thunder right by imagining dragons,
and he was just like, I'm actually emotional. And when
he said that, everybody was like, wow, they brought Simon
and Tears. So that's the power that these young people.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Have, and let's discuss that because the reason that you
do what you do right with choir and seeing some
of these young kids even auditioning or trying to move up,
because there's three different levels.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
If I'm yes, yeah, we have limelight center stage in
prime time.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Everybody want to be prime.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Timebody want to be prime time.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
But everybody can't be prime time.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Body can't be Prime time, yes.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
But even seeing the life skills that you get, because
you've said this in the docu series. This is not
about you singing for the rest of your life and
leaving here and becoming a singer. But these are also
things that you can apply to everyday life. So what
are some things that the young children who are part
of DYC can learn for everyday life.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, they can learn. Of course, we do youth development
so they can learn life skills. We travel a lot,
we perform a lot. We also do have an educational component,
you know, we have the college readiness, you know, we
prepare our young people to go on to college. And
we also have two music studios in our space so
(04:21):
they can do their own creation, their own music creation.
My music director is up in here too, Donelle. You know,
he records us and we do all of our music
there as well. And also we do a lot of
community service. Yes, so these kids get like the whole
well rounded experience of the performing arts and life.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And I also think part of it is seen that
every day is not a great day too. You know,
sometimes you have to tell them, you know, you didn't
bring it today, and the kids can get emotional hearing
things like that. But some people will say kids today
are so coddled, and but they do need to know, they.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Do need love though. They need to know for me
that everything is gonna be all right. Even though some
of them have a mother and father, you have some
single parent homes up in there. You know, a lot
of our kids never even met their father. So when
they come to rehearsal, I'm the only father that they see.
(05:19):
I'm the only brother that they see. And the docuseries,
I just watched it. I did a bench watching thing
and it was like so emotional reliving some of the
things that I saw. It was great.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I know you said a filming this too before COVID
right or during or during COVID, But but that did
delay things a little, but it also gave you a
chance to really get more into some of the stories.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, it did, Like even some of the stories of
these young people that's in this in our choir, Like
you have a Gwynn Jackson who lost her father to
gun violence. You also have a couple other kids that
fell on some hard times and d YC was there
(06:03):
and actually helped bring them up in their spirits. So
that's what we're all about and Detroit is so resilient,
like we bounced.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Back and you can never count Detroit out.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
You can't count the d you know what I'm saying.
And it's just great to be in New York. But
back to the kids. These young people are extraordinary and
through this docu series, you're going to see what makes
them extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Now, this is also on the journey to go and
to perform at Carnegie Hall, which is something that you
didn't know what was going to happen right when you started.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Feeling right, I just thought they wanted to see my
life and stuff like that and what I do with
the kids. But to add that Carnegie Hall piece to
it was amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And what I love about it too is that some
of these kids when they first get study, they're not
the best singers.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, right, they don't have to.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Be like a young Variah carry anything like that to
be in the choir. So what are some of the
requirements what do you look for to see potential in
some of these young kids.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, I basically look for character, like they have to
have great character when they come in to audition, and
also they have to be able to sing la la
la la la if you can do la la la.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I was trying to do it at home.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Now I cannot, okay, in you in the choir, I'm definitely.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I mean, all you have to do is and you
know that's great because Limelight is the beginning piece to
the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I'm fine with that.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
And you know, just to see people grow from Limelight, right,
they come from Limelight and they make it up to
prime time and I just think it's a wonderful system
we have.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So why did you even start, DYC.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Let's talk about you and what made you decide this
was something that you wanted to do. Because if I'm
not mistaken, over fifteen hundred students have gone through going.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Through the program. And okay, So I was twenty years
old actually singing with the choir that is now Detroit
Youth Choir was called Detroit Children's Concert Choir and it
was under the direction of mister Ivory. Right. He said, hey, Anthony,
I'm moving. I want you to take this choir to
(08:16):
the next level and it's yours. And I said, I
don't know, I'm only twenty years old. What do I
know about business? I took it over and from there
I started with seven young people because they all left
after he left except for seven. Now took seven and
turned it into what is now known as the world's
greatest the world's greatest youth choir that's out here at DYC.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
How hard is it for you when you get so
attached to these students, But it is a level of commitment.
And you know what, it's not just commitment from the students,
it's also from the families.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
The parents are. The parents is the biggest piece of
the puzzle. I don't give a lot of shout out
to them a lot, but I'm going to shout them out.
Shout out to our DYC parents staff, and we come
together as a family. So it takes a village literally
to get these kids on that stage. They are. I mean,
(09:12):
the parents are so supportive, even though they give me
the side I sometime because I require so much of
their time that they're like, oh my god, here we go.
You got another rehearsal, We got this, we got that.
But you have to rehearse, you have to practice to
become better.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And you know, sometimes because I know students who have
played like an aau and all of that. Sometimes for
the parents, if parents aren't as invested or don't have
the time and the ability to be able to drive here,
go here. You know, it plays a part, that does
play a part, and that has to be difficult when
you know kids really want to participate, but it might
(09:49):
be some obstacles in order to make that happen.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And a lot of young people they come from like
different good neighborhoods, some bad neighborhood Some of them have
to deal with a parent that's not doing so well financially,
so they come to d YC for like refuge, right,
So they'll say, mister White, can you work with us?
We want our daughter, we want our son, and we
(10:15):
we were able to work with them, like it caught it. Actually,
it's a registration fee to be in DYC and once
they pay that, that's it for the year. So we
don't do an every week type deal.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So and it's not ridiculous. It's like one two hundred dollars, yeah, two.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Hundred dollars a year. And uh, they're responsible for their
uniforms as well. And that's nothing these days in age
as far as registration being in the program. So I'll
try to keep it really affordable for our parents.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
How did you guys, decide which students you wanted to
focus on because there are so many extraordinary students that
are there.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So how did how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Well, it was really the director, Rudy Valdez. He was like, hey,
point me out, like five kids that have some great stories.
I gave him five, but I think he went over
that and he chose some great kids. I know, Ryan
Bowen's is one of the young men. Kennedy fought, let
(11:21):
me see Gwynn chie Chi, uh you ch Chi and
Kayla Roach. That's the main five, but there's some other kids.
I forgot about.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Decision because this is a huge time commitment and so
imagine being a student. And he's like, Okay, those are
big decisions though, like life decisions. I have basketball here,
I have d y C here, and they both are
requiring me, like make a decisions.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
A decision. You know what? It was rough for Azaria.
She's at Delaware State University right now, and she is extraordinary.
She's she been with me since she was nine and
nine to eighteen. I mean, her commitment to d YC
is extraordinary. And this story, this Docuseriies chronicalized everything of
(12:15):
her struggles with the basketball. You know, I was supporting
her with that as well, but I was like, Zar, here,
you got to choose one. You have to You can't
put one hundred percent in DYC while you playing basketball,
or you can't put one hundred percent in basketball while doing.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
D and you also have school and you have school.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
So I mean, that was a little tough for her.
But she came out of that, she really did, and
she's she's successful right now.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So I'm happy for What are some of the other
great success stories that you've had throughout your years.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Just give us a couple.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Uh. We had a girl Ala Stackhouse. She wound up
on Broadway like in the Book of Mormon.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, it's huge.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
She was. She went through DYC. I've had people become lawyers, doctors,
teachers out of the Detroit Youth Choir. And you wouldn't
know this just sitting up in rehearsal. I'm just going
through music and songs and different things. But they take
what I instruct them to do and apply it to
the art of teaching the art of being a lawyer
(13:22):
and a doctor. So they you know, they go on
and they come back and say, I appreciate you, mister white,
and I'm only I'm young. I'm like forty four. And
these young people they have kids too, so they put
their kids, their child in DYC. So it's kind of
it's kind of weird to see that, Like your son
is in the choir now, and I had you when
(13:44):
you were twelve, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So it's just the amount of discipline and confidence that
it takes to be able to get up in front
of an audience and be prepared an on point. But
also that's not an easy thing to do, even just
to get on that stage.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
It's not it's very hard to get on that Carnegie
stage though. That was scary, but it was joyful, you know.
I will say it was joyful because we accomplished something
that a lot of youth choirs haven't done yet, you know,
being in New York, you know what I'm saying. And
(14:21):
these kids were crying, See the cameras didn't show that.
They were actually like it was like, this is our moment,
you know, and then they were just oh, they was
breathing and the tears were coming down and it made
me tear up. And when I walked off that stage,
I was like it was like something being lifted off
my back and just to have them do that was extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
What do you hope that people who watch this docuseriies
will get out of it?
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I hope they get get out of our docuseries hope
struggle how to deal with the young people of today.
You know a lot of people don't really know how
to deal with our youth. And what I do. I
just tell them the truth. I know a lot of
people don't like the truth, but I'll say, hey, you know,
(15:09):
you need to work on that, or you're not sounding
so good today. Choir directors don't really do that because
they're scared, Oh they're going to go back to their mother,
you know, father or whatever. But I just going ahead
to say it. But the young people know that I'm
doing it out of love. So I want people to
get love out of this docu series and not so
(15:29):
much of It's not all about the music, you know
all the time at all.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
About love, yeah, you know, and the camaraderie too, I think,
just to see their friendships. Yeah that are that you
get that developed and some people that are in there
that are friends.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
And I can't remember her name, but she.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Was like, listen, if my best friend, Oh yeah, she's
like if I move up and she doesn't, but she
move up and I don't, I know. But just to
see how they also root for each because I think
that's a great life lesson too right.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
It's not one of us, only one of us can
make it right.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And just to know that Detroit is being shown in
the positive light. I mean, they made the city look beautiful,
just like Detroit is. And even the place where we rehearse,
they made that look spectacular.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
If you asked me, Detroit has so many beautiful locations.
Oh yes, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
And I know sometimes people will say, like I remember
I posted the building that I have in Midtown and
there was some people in the comments like, oh, who
wants to be in Detroit? And I was like, Detroit
is such an amazing city and if you don't go
there and get to experience certain things, you know, the food,
I think, the architecture, the people.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Oh yeah, and they love you, Angela, Detroit loves you
and you should just come and pop up at a
rehearsal one day.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, I'm actually you know, I'm back and forth. I'm
there at least once a month. Yeah, and there's a
lot of great incentives for.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Live in the city.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, to live in the city, but to also invest
in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Get your money in Detroit and see it grow, because
I mean, who would have thought, you know, pouring into
an organization like us like DYC would actually grow into
a Disney Right, that's amazing. That's something else. And I
was telling Donell over there, like what you ever thought
(17:28):
that we would have been on Disney coming from like
America's Got talent? Because this young man did the music
for us for AGT along with their producers. So he
was up in there working and and we was all
working together, and that's how we got the Golden buzzer
and everything.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And you know what, you don't know either, there's always
more levels to unlock.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So it's America's Got talent, it's this Disney Plus series
Docusaries Choir that's out now, and there's Carnegie Hall, and
then who knows what that next level about to be?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, we're supposed to be going to Africa there you go, okay,
and Africa look not Roby, right, So they actually asked
us to come and do a music festival in April. Yes,
so we're looking for donations and stuff to help us
get there. So I want these kids in Africa, so
(18:21):
if I want them there, or they're going to get there.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So how can people donate?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Well, they can go on our website, which is Detroit
Youth Choir dot org and donate as much as you
can to their Africa trip because we need it. I know,
we have to do airline tickets and stuff like.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That's not a game.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Good luck to you on that flight with everybody too,
because that's a long flight. I think, yeah, once I
went to South Africa that that's the longest spot I've
ever been on.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Really, yeah, did you sleeppt.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The entire time? I?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Actually, to be honest, I took a sleeping pill really
and part way through and the guy next to me
went to stopped talking to me, so I gave him one.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That's how you do it.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I said, so do you want one of these? And
he was like, oh is it? I was like, it's
from the drug store right here. He took it and
he was knocked out.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Knock him out?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, I mean, you don't want to talk to nobody
on the twenty twenty hour flight, not like that. But
movies I will, Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And now when it comes to your own inspirations, yes,
where do you draw inspiration from for the choir?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I'm glad you asked that. Actually a choir that was
here in New York, the Boy's Cry of arlom Oh. Yes,
they were a big milestone inspiration for me, and the
kids are tired of me talking about the Boy's Choir.
And when I saw them perform live back in Detroit,
(19:44):
I just fell in love with them. I heard them
on a few soundtracks Malcolm x Glory with Denzel and
also they were on Jungle Fever and a couple of
other Spike Lee joints. You know what I'm saying. And
when I found out of Bottom, I fell in love.
And that is our true inspiration for the Detroit Youth
(20:06):
Choir because if you look at us, we have the
logo just like they had their logo. We always in uniform,
just like they were always in uniform. So I chose
that choir to emulate because of their discipline and the culture,
the culture that they brought to choir because they were dancing,
(20:26):
singing and everything as well. So I wanted to continue
that legacy of the Harlem Boys Choir just to give
them honor.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, because you had these kids running working out. They
have to do all these because.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
That's not an easy task to get out like le stays,
because they're not just singing.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
They got routines.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
DYC is the whole package. And I would say this
to everybody, anybody out there that want to join our choir.
It's like a sport. It's like basketball, it's like football.
So we do jumping jacks, we we do knee highs.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You gotta have your wind, you got and you.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Know, you gotta have that breath right. And even though
I don't join in with that, I love watching them,
you know, get there, stammina up because the dancing scene,
for real, for real is really hard.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And you know what, the Detroit music scene popping the
way that it is. I can see a lot of
Detroit artists being like, we need to work with the
Detroit A Choir and get them on the album.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
That's what I can't wait. I know we're doing something
with skill a Baby.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Get at it.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I know the kids that I love Still a Baby.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He's actually been up here and he's been on lip
service and he works in the same studio I work
in when I do my podcast.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yeah, skill a jumped on the remix the popping that's
one of our songs. Yes, yeah, and shout out to
our love that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
So our producers de Slate right, he wrote him and
Buddy is this writing partner. They wrote all of our
original music. And there's fantastic Mama, we made it. Just
came out a week ago, and that's that's a big
I want you to see. I want you to hear
that out.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That's gonna be so huge. And you also have songwriters, right, yes,
our kids.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, oh yeah, our students are beautiful songwriters. Actually a
lot of our songs, a lot of our materials is
an accumulation of what their thoughts, you know, on paper.
And also, uh, they write for themselves. So I have
a lot of artists in our choir as well. Label
you know that's we already well we got we got
(22:40):
d YC Productions.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, you need to be putting this music out. You
like Motown over here to New Motown.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Motown, that's what they call us. They called d YC.
They say, you guys got it all, you got the factory,
you got you.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Do because you know a lot of people don't do
artists development now, and this really is pretty much artist's development. Yeah,
these kids are learning a lot of different things that
most artists are going viral and just sign into a label.
But right now, this is the preparation the hard work
that comes with It's a job to be an artist,
it is.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And we are the front runners in Detroit to artists development.
But you know we still have motown there. Yeah yeah,
but we are like we do it. It's an inquire
for you know, so even though we don't really concentrate
on individuals, we do it all together. So a skill
of Baby or a jay Z or somebody will call
(23:32):
us and say, hey, we need you on the track,
you know, so if any artists out there want to
work with us, we're here. We here.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Okay, we see a lot of the kids dancing is sexy.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Red, yeah, sexy red. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But listen, I want to thank you so much for
taking the time out to come here, because once I
saw this is coming out, I knew we had to
have you up here to highlight these students and.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
This beautiful story in the work that you've been doing.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
You need to get your flowers because it is a
lot that you're doing for these youths, so like literally
you know, a couple of thousand kids and their families
have been affected by you, and I know this is
something that's going to continue on.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So it's really really dope.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Thank you, and to be here on way up, it's
like a dream come true. So I want to thank
you and give you your flowers as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I cannot wait to see y'all.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Lindy Tray, we're stopping by, come on by, all right,
make sure y'all watch Choir six part Docusaries all six
parts coming out. It's out right now on Disney Plus,
so you can check it out and you're gonna love it.
You're gonna get a little emotional, I promise you for sure.
All Right, thank you so much, Anthony White
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Wo
Well, what's epistey up with the Angela Yee?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Angela Yee, And today we are honored to have
Anthony White with us, the artistic director for the Detroit
Youth Concert Choir and Performing Arts Company.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yes, yes, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Oh I'm great. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Thanks for having me? I'm fine. I've been wanting to
meet you alone for a long time. So yeah, I'm
glad I'm here.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm so listen and you're here because you guys have
Disney Plus docu saries called choir. Yes, before we start, though,
I do want to give my condolences. Oh yeah, I
see you have your Lions.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yes, the Lions. Uh yeah, Well, you know we were
we wanted to hit that Super Bowl real tough and
maybe we could have got like a little, you know
spot somewhere.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I would have been Yeah, I know, but you.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Know we well we're we're still d y C.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So let me ask you what would what was it
like in the city that night?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Wow? Pandemonium. The city really needed that because for a
long time, you know, the Lions have been struggling, and
you know, we were a part of that because we
did the halftime show. A couple of weeks ago at
their first playoff game thirty plus year yep, d I see,
(01:23):
and the city was just crazy. You know, I really
love that the way people receive the Lions again, just
the way they receive us to you know, Detroit is
a real you know all about it. Detroit is a
real strong city. You know, we love hard. So that's
(01:43):
pretty much what happened with that.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
You know, the work that you do is so important.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And I think when people watch this docuseriies and it's
out now, yes, out now on diny plus all six episodes,
you can watch and you get so invested in the story.
And I think it's so interesting talk about the Detroit
Youth Contac Choir because you guys definitely hit the spotlight
when you were on America's Got Talent. Yes, that was
a nationwide, worldwide people recognizing. I mean that was an
(02:12):
emotional when you guys how many people from the choir
were on America's Got Talent.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
So we took fifty two young people to LA And
if it wasn't for Terry Crews hitting that golden buzzer,
we wouldn't be in the spot that we're in. And
shout out to Simon and the rest of that panel.
How we Gabrielle Union was actually on that panel, and Terry,
I mean they were like having sent for us.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Terry Crews was like every single one of them represents me,
yes in history, and I think people felt so connected
when they saw that, because if you never heard of
the Detroit Youth continc Choir dyc right, then it was
like amazing. Even seeing Simon put his fist in the air, he.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Was like that Simon, all right, yeah, I loved us.
Simon was actually brought to Tears our last visit on
agt All Stars. We did thunder right by imagining dragons,
and he was just like, I'm actually emotional. And when
he said that, everybody was like, wow, they brought Simon
and Tears. So that's the power that these young people.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Have, and let's discuss that because the reason that you
do what you do right with choir and seeing some
of these young kids even auditioning or trying to move up,
because there's three different levels.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
If I'm yes, yeah, we have limelight center stage in
prime time.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Everybody want to be prime.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Timebody want to be prime time.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
But everybody can't be prime time.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Body can't be Prime time, yes.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
But even seeing the life skills that you get, because
you've said this in the docu series. This is not
about you singing for the rest of your life and
leaving here and becoming a singer. But these are also
things that you can apply to everyday life. So what
are some things that the young children who are part
of DYC can learn for everyday life.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, they can learn. Of course, we do youth development
so they can learn life skills. We travel a lot,
we perform a lot. We also do have an educational component,
you know, we have the college readiness, you know, we
prepare our young people to go on to college. And
we also have two music studios in our space so
(04:21):
they can do their own creation, their own music creation.
My music director is up in here too, Donelle. You know,
he records us and we do all of our music
there as well. And also we do a lot of
community service. Yes, so these kids get like the whole
well rounded experience of the performing arts and life.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And I also think part of it is seen that
every day is not a great day too. You know,
sometimes you have to tell them, you know, you didn't
bring it today, and the kids can get emotional hearing
things like that. But some people will say kids today
are so coddled, and but they do need to know, they.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Do need love though. They need to know for me
that everything is gonna be all right. Even though some
of them have a mother and father, you have some
single parent homes up in there. You know, a lot
of our kids never even met their father. So when
they come to rehearsal, I'm the only father that they see.
(05:19):
I'm the only brother that they see. And the docuseries,
I just watched it. I did a bench watching thing
and it was like so emotional reliving some of the
things that I saw. It was great.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I know you said a filming this too before COVID
right or during or during COVID, But but that did
delay things a little, but it also gave you a
chance to really get more into some of the stories.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, it did, Like even some of the stories of
these young people that's in this in our choir, Like
you have a Gwynn Jackson who lost her father to
gun violence. You also have a couple other kids that
fell on some hard times and d YC was there
(06:03):
and actually helped bring them up in their spirits. So
that's what we're all about and Detroit is so resilient,
like we bounced.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Back and you can never count Detroit out.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
You can't count the d you know what I'm saying.
And it's just great to be in New York. But
back to the kids. These young people are extraordinary and
through this docu series, you're going to see what makes
them extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Now, this is also on the journey to go and
to perform at Carnegie Hall, which is something that you
didn't know what was going to happen right when you started.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Feeling right, I just thought they wanted to see my
life and stuff like that and what I do with
the kids. But to add that Carnegie Hall piece to
it was amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And what I love about it too is that some
of these kids when they first get study, they're not
the best singers.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, right, they don't have to.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Be like a young Variah carry anything like that to
be in the choir. So what are some of the
requirements what do you look for to see potential in
some of these young kids.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, I basically look for character, like they have to
have great character when they come in to audition, and
also they have to be able to sing la la
la la la if you can do la la la.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I was trying to do it at home.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Now I cannot, okay, in you in the choir, I'm definitely.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I mean, all you have to do is and you
know that's great because Limelight is the beginning piece to
the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I'm fine with that.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
And you know, just to see people grow from Limelight, right,
they come from Limelight and they make it up to
prime time and I just think it's a wonderful system
we have.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So why did you even start, DYC.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Let's talk about you and what made you decide this
was something that you wanted to do. Because if I'm
not mistaken, over fifteen hundred students have gone through going.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Through the program. And okay, So I was twenty years
old actually singing with the choir that is now Detroit
Youth Choir was called Detroit Children's Concert Choir and it
was under the direction of mister Ivory. Right. He said, hey, Anthony,
I'm moving. I want you to take this choir to
(08:16):
the next level and it's yours. And I said, I
don't know, I'm only twenty years old. What do I
know about business? I took it over and from there
I started with seven young people because they all left
after he left except for seven. Now took seven and
turned it into what is now known as the world's
greatest the world's greatest youth choir that's out here at DYC.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
How hard is it for you when you get so
attached to these students, But it is a level of commitment.
And you know what, it's not just commitment from the students,
it's also from the families.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
The parents are. The parents is the biggest piece of
the puzzle. I don't give a lot of shout out
to them a lot, but I'm going to shout them out.
Shout out to our DYC parents staff, and we come
together as a family. So it takes a village literally
to get these kids on that stage. They are. I mean,
(09:12):
the parents are so supportive, even though they give me
the side I sometime because I require so much of
their time that they're like, oh my god, here we go.
You got another rehearsal, We got this, we got that.
But you have to rehearse, you have to practice to
become better.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And you know, sometimes because I know students who have
played like an aau and all of that. Sometimes for
the parents, if parents aren't as invested or don't have
the time and the ability to be able to drive here,
go here. You know, it plays a part, that does
play a part, and that has to be difficult when
you know kids really want to participate, but it might
(09:49):
be some obstacles in order to make that happen.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And a lot of young people they come from like
different good neighborhoods, some bad neighborhood Some of them have
to deal with a parent that's not doing so well financially,
so they come to d YC for like refuge, right,
So they'll say, mister White, can you work with us?
We want our daughter, we want our son, and we
(10:15):
we were able to work with them, like it caught it. Actually,
it's a registration fee to be in DYC and once
they pay that, that's it for the year. So we
don't do an every week type deal.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So and it's not ridiculous. It's like one two hundred dollars, yeah, two.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Hundred dollars a year. And uh, they're responsible for their
uniforms as well. And that's nothing these days in age
as far as registration being in the program. So I'll
try to keep it really affordable for our parents.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
How did you guys, decide which students you wanted to
focus on because there are so many extraordinary students that
are there.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So how did how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Well, it was really the director, Rudy Valdez. He was like, hey,
point me out, like five kids that have some great stories.
I gave him five, but I think he went over
that and he chose some great kids. I know, Ryan
Bowen's is one of the young men. Kennedy fought, let
(11:21):
me see Gwynn chie Chi, uh you ch Chi and
Kayla Roach. That's the main five, but there's some other kids.
I forgot about.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Decision because this is a huge time commitment and so
imagine being a student. And he's like, Okay, those are
big decisions though, like life decisions. I have basketball here,
I have d y C here, and they both are
requiring me, like make a decisions.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
A decision. You know what? It was rough for Azaria.
She's at Delaware State University right now, and she is extraordinary.
She's she been with me since she was nine and
nine to eighteen. I mean, her commitment to d YC
is extraordinary. And this story, this Docuseriies chronicalized everything of
(12:15):
her struggles with the basketball. You know, I was supporting
her with that as well, but I was like, Zar, here,
you got to choose one. You have to You can't
put one hundred percent in DYC while you playing basketball,
or you can't put one hundred percent in basketball while doing.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
D and you also have school and you have school.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
So I mean, that was a little tough for her.
But she came out of that, she really did, and
she's she's successful right now.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So I'm happy for What are some of the other
great success stories that you've had throughout your years.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Just give us a couple.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Uh. We had a girl Ala Stackhouse. She wound up
on Broadway like in the Book of Mormon.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, it's huge.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
She was. She went through DYC. I've had people become lawyers, doctors,
teachers out of the Detroit Youth Choir. And you wouldn't
know this just sitting up in rehearsal. I'm just going
through music and songs and different things. But they take
what I instruct them to do and apply it to
the art of teaching the art of being a lawyer
(13:22):
and a doctor. So they you know, they go on
and they come back and say, I appreciate you, mister white,
and I'm only I'm young. I'm like forty four. And
these young people they have kids too, so they put
their kids, their child in DYC. So it's kind of
it's kind of weird to see that, Like your son
is in the choir now, and I had you when
(13:44):
you were twelve, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So it's just the amount of discipline and confidence that
it takes to be able to get up in front
of an audience and be prepared an on point. But
also that's not an easy thing to do, even just
to get on that stage.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
It's not it's very hard to get on that Carnegie
stage though. That was scary, but it was joyful, you know.
I will say it was joyful because we accomplished something
that a lot of youth choirs haven't done yet, you know,
being in New York, you know what I'm saying. And
(14:21):
these kids were crying, See the cameras didn't show that.
They were actually like it was like, this is our moment,
you know, and then they were just oh, they was
breathing and the tears were coming down and it made
me tear up. And when I walked off that stage,
I was like it was like something being lifted off
my back and just to have them do that was extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
What do you hope that people who watch this docuseriies
will get out of it?
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I hope they get get out of our docuseries hope
struggle how to deal with the young people of today.
You know a lot of people don't really know how
to deal with our youth. And what I do. I
just tell them the truth. I know a lot of
people don't like the truth, but I'll say, hey, you know,
(15:09):
you need to work on that, or you're not sounding
so good today. Choir directors don't really do that because
they're scared, Oh they're going to go back to their mother,
you know, father or whatever. But I just going ahead
to say it. But the young people know that I'm
doing it out of love. So I want people to
get love out of this docu series and not so
(15:29):
much of It's not all about the music, you know
all the time at all.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
About love, yeah, you know, and the camaraderie too, I think,
just to see their friendships. Yeah that are that you
get that developed and some people that are in there
that are friends.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
And I can't remember her name, but she.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Was like, listen, if my best friend, Oh yeah, she's
like if I move up and she doesn't, but she
move up and I don't, I know. But just to
see how they also root for each because I think
that's a great life lesson too right.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
It's not one of us, only one of us can
make it right.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And just to know that Detroit is being shown in
the positive light. I mean, they made the city look beautiful,
just like Detroit is. And even the place where we rehearse,
they made that look spectacular.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
If you asked me, Detroit has so many beautiful locations.
Oh yes, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
And I know sometimes people will say, like I remember
I posted the building that I have in Midtown and
there was some people in the comments like, oh, who
wants to be in Detroit? And I was like, Detroit
is such an amazing city and if you don't go
there and get to experience certain things, you know, the food,
I think, the architecture, the people.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Oh yeah, and they love you, Angela, Detroit loves you
and you should just come and pop up at a
rehearsal one day.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, I'm actually you know, I'm back and forth. I'm
there at least once a month. Yeah, and there's a
lot of great incentives for.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Live in the city.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, to live in the city, but to also invest
in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Get your money in Detroit and see it grow, because
I mean, who would have thought, you know, pouring into
an organization like us like DYC would actually grow into
a Disney Right, that's amazing. That's something else. And I
was telling Donell over there, like what you ever thought
(17:28):
that we would have been on Disney coming from like
America's Got talent? Because this young man did the music
for us for AGT along with their producers. So he
was up in there working and and we was all
working together, and that's how we got the Golden buzzer
and everything.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And you know what, you don't know either, there's always
more levels to unlock.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So it's America's Got talent, it's this Disney Plus series
Docusaries Choir that's out now, and there's Carnegie Hall, and
then who knows what that next level about to be?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, we're supposed to be going to Africa there you go, okay,
and Africa look not Roby, right, So they actually asked
us to come and do a music festival in April. Yes,
so we're looking for donations and stuff to help us
get there. So I want these kids in Africa, so
(18:21):
if I want them there, or they're going to get there.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So how can people donate?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Well, they can go on our website, which is Detroit
Youth Choir dot org and donate as much as you
can to their Africa trip because we need it. I know,
we have to do airline tickets and stuff like.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That's not a game.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Good luck to you on that flight with everybody too,
because that's a long flight. I think, yeah, once I
went to South Africa that that's the longest spot I've
ever been on.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Really, yeah, did you sleeppt.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The entire time? I?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Actually, to be honest, I took a sleeping pill really
and part way through and the guy next to me
went to stopped talking to me, so I gave him one.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That's how you do it.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I said, so do you want one of these? And
he was like, oh is it? I was like, it's
from the drug store right here. He took it and
he was knocked out.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Knock him out?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, I mean, you don't want to talk to nobody
on the twenty twenty hour flight, not like that. But
movies I will, Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And now when it comes to your own inspirations, yes,
where do you draw inspiration from for the choir?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I'm glad you asked that. Actually a choir that was
here in New York, the Boy's Cry of arlom Oh. Yes,
they were a big milestone inspiration for me, and the
kids are tired of me talking about the Boy's Choir.
And when I saw them perform live back in Detroit,
(19:44):
I just fell in love with them. I heard them
on a few soundtracks Malcolm x Glory with Denzel and
also they were on Jungle Fever and a couple of
other Spike Lee joints. You know what I'm saying. And
when I found out of Bottom, I fell in love.
And that is our true inspiration for the Detroit Youth
(20:06):
Choir because if you look at us, we have the
logo just like they had their logo. We always in uniform,
just like they were always in uniform. So I chose
that choir to emulate because of their discipline and the culture,
the culture that they brought to choir because they were dancing,
(20:26):
singing and everything as well. So I wanted to continue
that legacy of the Harlem Boys Choir just to give
them honor.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, because you had these kids running working out. They
have to do all these because.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
That's not an easy task to get out like le stays,
because they're not just singing.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
They got routines.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
DYC is the whole package. And I would say this
to everybody, anybody out there that want to join our choir.
It's like a sport. It's like basketball, it's like football.
So we do jumping jacks, we we do knee highs.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You gotta have your wind, you got and you.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Know, you gotta have that breath right. And even though
I don't join in with that, I love watching them,
you know, get there, stammina up because the dancing scene,
for real, for real is really hard.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And you know what, the Detroit music scene popping the
way that it is. I can see a lot of
Detroit artists being like, we need to work with the
Detroit A Choir and get them on the album.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
That's what I can't wait. I know we're doing something
with skill a Baby.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Get at it.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I know the kids that I love Still a Baby.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He's actually been up here and he's been on lip
service and he works in the same studio I work
in when I do my podcast.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yeah, skill a jumped on the remix the popping that's
one of our songs. Yes, yeah, and shout out to
our love that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
So our producers de Slate right, he wrote him and
Buddy is this writing partner. They wrote all of our
original music. And there's fantastic Mama, we made it. Just
came out a week ago, and that's that's a big
I want you to see. I want you to hear
that out.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That's gonna be so huge. And you also have songwriters, right, yes,
our kids.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, oh yeah, our students are beautiful songwriters. Actually a
lot of our songs, a lot of our materials is
an accumulation of what their thoughts, you know, on paper.
And also, uh, they write for themselves. So I have
a lot of artists in our choir as well. Label
you know that's we already well we got we got
(22:40):
d YC Productions.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, you need to be putting this music out. You
like Motown over here to New Motown.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Motown, that's what they call us. They called d YC.
They say, you guys got it all, you got the factory,
you got you.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Do because you know a lot of people don't do
artists development now, and this really is pretty much artist's development. Yeah,
these kids are learning a lot of different things that
most artists are going viral and just sign into a label.
But right now, this is the preparation the hard work
that comes with It's a job to be an artist,
it is.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And we are the front runners in Detroit to artists development.
But you know we still have motown there. Yeah yeah,
but we are like we do it. It's an inquire
for you know, so even though we don't really concentrate
on individuals, we do it all together. So a skill
of Baby or a jay Z or somebody will call
(23:32):
us and say, hey, we need you on the track,
you know, so if any artists out there want to
work with us, we're here. We here.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Okay, we see a lot of the kids dancing is sexy.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Red, yeah, sexy red. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But listen, I want to thank you so much for
taking the time out to come here, because once I
saw this is coming out, I knew we had to
have you up here to highlight these students and.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
This beautiful story in the work that you've been doing.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
You need to get your flowers because it is a
lot that you're doing for these youths, so like literally
you know, a couple of thousand kids and their families
have been affected by you, and I know this is
something that's going to continue on.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So it's really really dope.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Thank you, and to be here on way up, it's
like a dream come true. So I want to thank
you and give you your flowers as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I cannot wait to see y'all.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Lindy Tray, we're stopping by, come on by, all right,
make sure y'all watch Choir six part Docusaries all six
parts coming out. It's out right now on Disney Plus,
so you can check it out and you're gonna love it.
You're gonna get a little emotional, I promise you for sure.
All Right, thank you so much, Anthony White
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Wo
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