Voices from many faiths rise together in Oakland choir Earlier, Terrance Kelly, the artistic director of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, had apologized for his rough voice. Don’t you know how much God loves you? Don’t you know how much God loves you? Lifestyles, backgrounds, races, creeds, likes, dislikes,” he says later, “we’re all mixed up. Quit giving me mashed potatoes without butter and salt. “I really believe — really believe — he’s been the anchor or the pillar of the success organization,” says Mark DeSaulnier, who handles the finances as the executive director. “There’s a strong spiritual connection with the audience in concerts and with the congregation in church settings — a back and forth of energy that builds up,” says Ben Heveroh, who plays the piano and organ for the choir. Eventually the program director asked him if he could start a full-time gospel choir that would let anybody in. “My house was the U.N.” His dad taught piano at Laney College in Oakland, so students were always coming over. When he talked to his pastor about it all, the pastor offered him some simple advice: “If you direct that choir for 100 years and you touch one soul, it was worth it.” How, they asked, could Kelly put a white person next to a black person, a Christian next to a Jew, a Unitarian next to a Buddhist, the poor next to the rich, and still continue to sing? The church was packed, he says — 400, 500 people, “whatever the church seats,” Kelly says. There were about 100 older black women there — “the mothers contingency” — dressed all in white: “white hats and white gloves.” “The music starts and the choir starts walking into the choir loft and you can literally see them go like this —” Kelly crosses his arms and sets his stare sideways. The singers get in position, the drums start, and the choir begins with a song called “My Soul Says Yes.” The sort you can imagine would pull people to their feet and not give them much of a choice about it. The roots of gospel music reach deep into the heart of the black experience in America — to slavery and mass conversion and Negro spirituals. The New York Times, in late 1989, wrote about how the group had won “acclaim both for its sound — the group sang backup vocals on Linda Ronstadt’s latest album — and its symbolism.” Most of the talk about the choir comes from outsiders looking in, trying to understand how a group that different could work. [...] when you’re at practice, like the one that night at Imani Community Church, you start to realize it’s something outsiders might never understand, at least not the way Kelly does. There’s a date on the calendar for the choir to sing at the renewal of vows for two members who met in the choir a decade ago. When one woman lost her house, the group came together to find her a new place, help her move and cover the deposit. There are times when the voices pull together in just the right way to make one, booming voice. Suddenly the members can’t help but jump to their feet and wave their hands and bounce and smile. A few members started throwing shoes at her. Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Holiday Concert:
Comment on Voices from many faiths rise together in Oakland choir
By Ryan Kost, San Francisco Chronicle: Entertainment
Sun, 11/29/2015 - 5:16am
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