'Choir' on Disney+ gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the Detroit Youth Choir
In “Choir,” the new docuseries about the Detroit Youth Choir, the drama hinges on a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to perform at New York City’s Carnegie Hall — and the fact that, as the choir’s artistic director Anthony White stresses on the screen, there is room to include only 40 out of more than 80 “super-talented” members.
Who is going to make the cut? Viewers will want to know the answer. But what really will draw them into the six episodes, which arrive Wednesday for streaming on Disney+, is the chance to meet teenagers like Kaylen, who, along with his choir responsibilities, is juggling high school, preparing for college and reaching his goal of being a role model to his younger siblings.
There’s a scene where Kaylen talks about his sister's disappointment at not being chosen for the Carnegie Hall group. “She told me she didn’t really want to talk about it,” he says. “And I said, ‘OK, I wont force you to tell me, but what I will do is give you a big, giant hug.”
"Choir" is one of the best TV shows of 2024 so far, mostly because of the empathy it has for members of the Motor City’s best-known youth vocal group but also because of how honest it is about the commitment it takes to be a member.
In 2019, DYC had a joyous run to a second-place finish on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” where host and Flint native Terry Crews put them through to the finals with the golden buzzer and host Simon Cowell gave White and his choir some of the season’s top compliments for their inspiring performances.
In the years since then, the choir has recorded the Oscar-winning song “Glory” to speak out for racial justice and the Guns N’ Roses hit ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine” to address gun violence. In January 2023, it returned to network TV to compete on “America’s Got Talent All Stars.” Earlier this month, DYC sang during halftime at Ford Field for the Detroit Lions' first playoff game.
“Choir” is the deep, behind-the-scenes look that the young singers deserve. Produced by Imagine Entertainment and Blumhouse Television and directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Rudy Valdez, it is an energetic, sometimes funny, often moving chronicle of the choir's regular process of auditions and rehearsals for students ranging in age from 8 to 18 who are assigned to one of three separate choirs: Limelight, Center Stage and Primetime.
When a call arrives asking White whether the choir can perform at a Carnegie Hall concert featuring the National Opera Chorus & Orchestra, it’s an unexpected plot twist. Although some of the kids have to search online to find out what Carnegie Hall is, the meaning of the opportunity soon hits them. “Man, lemme tell y’all, like, Billie Holiday performed there. That’s probably one of the best things in the world," says a teen named Kennedy.
Viewers are introduced to several DYC members including Uchechi and Kayla, best friends who are worried about the other’s audition; Azaria, who is trying to keep up with the demands of both basketball and choir; and Gwendolyn, who lost her father as a child and visits his grave with her family.
“Music, it’s a safe space for me and it’s what keeps me going,” she says
Valdez, who was born and raised in Lansing, says he approached the docuseries with the mission of giving choir members, parents and staffers a chance to “be emblematic of what it means to grow up in Detroit.”
Acclaimed for his documentary “The Sentence,” a 10-year look at his sister’s struggle with a criminal justice system in need of sentencing reform, Valdez says he has seen too many outsiders who want to perpetuate the negative stereotypes regarding cities like Detroit.
“I think if you go into a city, any city, really, with the idea of, 'OK, I’m going to show you how bad this is, how bad they have it, telling the woe is my story,' you’re going to find that. But if you go into any city and any story and say, 'You know what? I’m going to show up with a lens of beauty and looking for agency and looking for hope,' they’re going to find that as well. “
Adds Valdez, “And it was not very hard to find that in Detroit, especially with these kids and this organization.”
Filming on “Choir” took place briefly in 2021, but the bulk of it was moved to 2022 because of the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The delay gave Valdez more time to get to know his subjects and gain their confidence.
“The first step in all of this was earning the trust of the staff and Anthony White because they guard these kids. They make sure these kids are safe,” he says. “ Once the kids saw that Anthony and the rest of the staff were comfortable with us, they were able to be comfortable as well. They understood that Anthony wasn’t going to let some random people come in and go crazy with their story.”
The Carnegie Hall surprise was an organic bit of good luck. Notes Valdez: “We were already very excited about spending a season with these kids ... just knowing the way Anthony tries to present them to as many people as possible and give them amazing opportunities. We always had this feeling that something was going to happen, some big concert, some event. They were going to get a chance to show you what they’re really made of at some point. But when that presented itself, we thought, 'Wow, how fortuitous is that?'”
While “Choir” depicts some members leaving auditions in tears (while those waiting to go in next watch in alarm), what impressed Valdez over and over again is how the DYC staff handled those moments. “When something was happening that was emotional or sort of out of the norm, it was never a brush-off. … It was: ‘Let’s figure out what’s going on. Let’s understand these emotions and let’s respect these emotions.'“
Filming the Carnegie Hall concert brought its own technical headaches to the crew. ”For us, the biggest hurdle is we truly as a film team only got one shot at it. It’s not like we could say, 'OK, can we do that again?'” says Valdez, who wielded one of the cameras used onstage. He describes it as a matter of knowing the choir’s choreography and capturing the performance without intruding upon it.
“We were doing our own little dance up there," he says. "We said we performed at Carnegie Hall as well.”
White, who has made the nonprofit Detroit Youth Choir his mission for more than 20 years, says he agreed to the docuseries because he felt it was time to tell the choir’s story and show how it has grown and evolved since he took over in 2001, when there were only seven members.
“It’s actually like a lifestyle now,” says White. “The kids, they hang out together, they go to rehearsal together, they travel together, they perform together.” Although White says he hasn’t seen it yet, he hopes the documentary shows how the choir, and efforts like its college readiness program, gives members skills they can use for the rest of their lives.
Valdez says the docuseries illustrates just how much the young people at its center care.
“They care about how they’re representing themselves, how they’re representing the Detroit Youth Choir and also how they’re representing Detroit. They understand all of those things rest on how they present themselves everywhere they go, and they take that to heart."
It's a message that's as resonant as the voices you'll hear lifted in song. "When you take a risk, you can often challenge yourself and great things can happen, especially when you’re surrounded by people who believe in you,” says Valdez.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].
'Choir'
All six episodes arrive Wednesday on Disney+
Rated TV-PG
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Youth Choir stars in the Disney+ series 'Choir'