29 January 2024
Rudy Valdez was filming a documentary and while sitting in his hotel room, he saw the Detroit Youth Choir make its first appearance on “America’s Got Talent” during the spring of 2019.
“I turned on the television, like I usually do, for some white noise and ‘America’s Got Talent’ was on,” Valdez, a two-time Emmy Award winner, recalls. “I watched (the DYC) get that first golden buzzer, and I remember thinking: ‘What an amazing opportunity for these kids. What an amazing story.’”
Little did Valdez know he’d be telling that story just a couple of years later.
Valdez directed and executive produced “Choir,” the Disney+ docuseries about the DYC that begins streaming on Wednesday, Jan. 31. Its six, hourlong episodes chronicle a year in the life of the choir and its longtime director Anthony White, including the DYC’s June 2022 performance at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall as part of its National Opera Chorus and Orchestra series.
The Detroit Youth Choir performs at the “Choir” premiere during the 2023 Tribeca Festival at SVA Theatre on June 16, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
“Choir,” which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, offers a deep look into the DYC, from the way it operates to the many personalities and internal stories that are part of the ensemble to the members’ families and lives outside of the choir. At the center is White, a tough but caring taskmaster managing a tricky balance of doing what’s right for the DYC, but also for the singers as individuals.
“We had a blast making this,” says Valdez, who was raised in Lansing and now resides with his wife and two children in northern Michigan. He and his crew spent the better part of a year making regular visits to Detroit, filming around town and mostly at DYC rehearsals on the former Marygrove College campus, as well as accompanying the troupe to New York for the Carnegie Hall concert White considers “like the Super Bowl.”
“Being able to be there and watch the thought process and the inner workings of the decisions they make, it was always kids first, putting them first in all the decisions,” Valdez says. “Anthony White and his team … they’re not just providing lip service about, ‘Oh we’re here for your kids and we want to create this thing.’ They’re doing it. When you model that and you’re consistent with it … and if you provide this kind of atmosphere of love and caring and opportunity, you’re gonna get that back.
“And that’s exactly what you see with the Detroit Youth Choir.”
Despite the DYC’s notoriety following its runner-up run on “America’s Got Talent,” White says the idea of a docuseries “kinda threw me aback.” He was first approached by Michael Seitzman of Maniac Productions, which subsequently signed a deal with Blumhouse Television, which in turn partnered with Imagine Entertainment — founded by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer — for “Choir.”
“The next thing you know we have cameras at our rehearsals every week and every weekend,” recalls White, who feels that having “Choir” on Disney+ “is a great marriage because I think we align with a lot of Disney’s values.”
And while “America’s Got Talent” runs have been the worldwide hook for the DYC, Valdez says the idea was to show how much more there is to the 28-year-old organization’s story.
Detroit Youth Choir attends “America’s Got Talent: All-Stars” Red Carpet at Radford Studio Center on Nov. 3, 2022. (Photo by Unique Nicole/Getty Images)
“For a lot of people, they came out of nowhere onto ‘AGT,’ but there were decades of work that went into that,” Valdez explains. “It’s not this fly-by-night thing. ‘AGT’ was wonderful, but it’s not the beginning and it’s not the end — not when they have such a wonderful group of kids, wonderful stuff, wonderful parents, Anthony White leading the charge.
“So I wanted to honor that and honor their story.”
In doing that, Valdez and his team found stories to track amongst the individual choir members, like graduating seniors Kaylen and Eric, who both found themselves in the DYC. And there’s Uchechi and Kayla, who are lifelong friends, both striving to move up to the DYC’s top level, Primetime. Azaria, whose mother is DYC choreographer Carmelita Flemister, juggles the choir and varsity basketball at Renaissance High School.
“One of the challenges in this project, one I like to have, is there were so many wonderful kids, wonderful parents, wonderful stories. You can’t turn your camera anywhere and not to see someone doing something wonderful,” notes Valdez, whose other credits include “We Are: The Brooklyn Saints,” “Through Our Eyes” and “Carlos,” the latter about Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana. “As great as that sounds, it’s a challenge. The kids we did follow are truly the stories that came organically for us. That’s my favorite way.”
White adds that having cameras around became standard operating procedure for DYC. “We would schedule days and I told the kids, ‘Hey, you’re gonna have cameras in the rehearsal today or tomorrow, or Saturday,’” he recalls. “They were really used to cameras being in the room.” White says with a laugh that a greater issue was the DYC staff sometimes over-emoting for Valdez’s benefit.
“They would go overboard,” White says. “I would give them the speech before it started. Some listened. Some didn’t.”
Detroit Youth Choir director Anthony White helps students rehearse at Marygrove College in Detroit. (Photo courtesy of Brittany Greeson/Disney)
White, for his part, would love to see another season of “Choir” filmed to continue telling the DYC story. The docuseries ends, appropriately, with seniors graduating and remaining members auditioning for places in the Primetime ensemble — a reminder that the DYC is a continuum amidst its many achievements.
“(White) never sits back and says, ‘Oh, we’ve done it,’” says Valdez. “There’s always the next thing they’re trying to do, the next version pushing kids to the limit again to see their full abilities on stage.”
To which White adds: “You have to believe in yourself when nobody else believes in you. You have to stay … determined. If you’re determined, a lot of great things will come to you in the end.”
Members of the Detroit Youth Choir perform at Carnegie Hall. (Photo courtesy of Zach Dilgard/Disney)