Choir members from around the world perform in Japan.

Local members of the Keystone State Boyschoir – Zack Crenshaw, Jesse Kahn, Adam Saah, Tunde Sogo, Jelani McFadden and Kelani Wheeler – joined musicians from Hiroshima and around the world to perform a “Concert for Peace in Hiroshima” recently in Japan.

The boys said they returned from Japan with memories of music and friendship and hopes that their travels made a difference in striving toward peace and nuclear abolition in the future.

Representing the United States, they traveled to Hiroshima and joined musicians from the five nuclear weapons states, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China. Together, these 35 teens, youths and young adult musicians joined with 100 musicians from Hiroshima in The “Concert for Peace in Hiroshima,” held April 1 at Aster Plaza in downtown Hiroshima.

The mission of Concert Organizer Yasuko Mitsui was to bring together musicians to help heal the past and pave the road to peace for future generations. And she had this to say to Stephen M. Fisher, associate music director of KSB, about the members of the choir who represented the USA:

“You educate not only music but (the) human being. Good music lives in good hearts. We learn from (the) boys and (the) honesty of the American people.”

All of the members of KSB who participated felt the impact.

“The collaboration with other young musicians from so many countries was inspiring,” said Zach Crenshaw, one of the boys who traveled to perform in the concert. “Meeting individuals who lost family members in the attack on Hiroshima was an experience that I will never forget.”

The KSB was selected to represent the United States, and is the only choir in the world to have toured all seven continents. KSB earned this distinction in 2009 when they performed in Antarctica.

Last summer, KSB sang at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, for Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi and presented her with a Liberty Bell. Internationally, KSB has performed in the world’s major concert halls, including the Manaus Opera House in Brazil, the Petronas Philharmonik Hall in Malaysia, and the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam, as well as in venues throughout Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Monaco, France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Norway.

For more information about joining KSB, call Martha Platt at 215-287-3124 or visit www.keystonestateboychoir.org.