With a full heart I am happy to report that our Sounds Session gospel concert yesterday was a huge success! We were blessed to perform with Earl Bright & Elevated, an outstanding gospel choir. In addition to each of us performing sets of approx. 40 minutes, we sang several gospel selections together. The two choirs came together wonderfully to make a joyous noise!
When I was offered to participate in the concert, even though we are aggressively performing 5 major musical events in 2025, I thought . . . this could be a cool opportunity. We already know several gospel and spiritual pieces, so I decided to go for it as a chance to meet new people, sing in new spaces, and leverage music to help form community. Well that risk paid off significantly!
Never before have I been more proud of our choir! Our members selflessly jumped into the music for this concert. Part of this undertaking is to get out of our comfort zone. For example, for the song Oh Happy Day, I did not provide any sheet music to the choir. Instead I taught them the various phrases of the song orally. Then for the performance the plan is to follow the director and sing those phrases that he indicates. Honestly this is the way music has been taught for thousands of years. However, with most modern choirs we are glued to our sheet music. So we did our best to learn the music and prepare for the unknown. This undertaking makes us better musicians and singers. We are forced to learn on the fly and to live in the moment. And honestly, this makes for the most authentic and meaningful performances.
We shot a video of the performance. My gracious thanks to AV specialist Tom Lima for all of his help! Once we have some edited selections we will share links over the 1643 e-newsletter. We hope you enjoy hearing them as much as we enjoyed singing them!
Respectfully submitted,
Geoff