MOORPARK : Boys From Choir to Sing at Church

Many of the boys in the Amadeus Boys Choir say they are relieved they don’t have to sing with girls.

“I’d quit,” said Philip Sheng, 8, of Thousand Oaks. “Girls will, like, mess up.”

The choir’s director, Wilbur Skeels, said attitudes such as Sheng’s are one reason why he limits membership to boys.

Twenty-six boys, most between the ages of 8 and 13, sing in the two-year-old choir that is sponsored by Moorpark College, Skeels said.

“It’s very hard to get boys to sing,” Skeels said. “The perception many boys have is that singing is for girls. We make it an elite group just to get the boys to do the thing.”

In addition, he said, boys’ voices are different than girls’.

“The voice quality is different, not better or worse,” he said. The choir’s repertoire includes classical music that was written specifically for boys’ voices, in the days when women were not allowed to sing in church choirs, he said.

Jason Lu, 11, of Thousand Oaks said it would be too distracting if the choir included girls.

“Girls would laugh at the boys if they messed up,” Lu said. “We’re easier on each other because we’re boys and they’re girls.”

Some of the older boys pointed out, however, that the fun can’t last forever.

“My voice is getting lower,” Jeff Manley, 12, of Thousand Oaks, said. “On high notes, really high ones . . . it just cracks sometimes.”

Nick Doerr, 13, of Thousand Oaks said his voice is starting to change.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later,” Doerr said.

About half of the choir’s members will perform with the Moorpark Masterworks Chorale under conductor Roger Wagner this weekend at St. Paschal Baylon Catholic Church in Thousand Oaks. For more information, call Moorpark College at 378-1410.