Baha'i Gospel Choir

They Sang Their Praises to Our Lord All Through Western Europe

On June 25th, 2004, singers from several parts of the world gathered in London, England to begin rehearsals for the first tour of the Baha’i Gospel Choir under the direction of Van Gilmer.  They came from 25 cities in the United States and from 11 countries.  Many of them had never met each other before and for many, it was the first time to sing gospel music.  Main soloists were Adrienne Ewing-Roush, Sean Gilmer, and Van Gilmer. 

There were also many other outstanding soloists including Kay Yoder, Walter Heath, George Branyan, Wes Baker, Jerry Johnson, Marie Sealy, Roya Bauman, Krisia Haynes.  These soloists were further supplemented by even more wonderful voices.  The choir was rich with persons with singing backgrounds.

In the words of director Van Gilmer, "I was a little apprehensive at first since this tour would only feature gospel music and the venerable Negro Spirituals.  I wondered how many people would want to sing only this music and whether or not there would be a sizeable participation on persons of African descent.  I was overwhelmed by the number of persons who were interested after the first announcement a year ago, but even more excited to see how many persons of African descent who had never travelled in a singing tour to Europe before were willing to go."  In the end, 103 persons participated in this historic tour to western Europe, 47 of them from African descent.  There was already no doubt that the people of Europe love gospel music.  That had been witnessed in previous years whenever Baha’i choirs toured there and included gospel music. Audiences seemed to be particularly moved by the gospel music as well as to its setting to the sacred Baha’i writings.

This year, the Baha’i Gospel Choir visited 7 cities and gave six concerts. They sang to enthusiastic audiences in London, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt, with an invitation to sing during the Holy Day Observance at the House of Worship in Langenhain, Germany.  Most of the concerts were in beautiful old churches, a  perfect setting for this particular sacred music.  The music was GLORIOUS there! 

The local Baha’is had warned the choir and its director that the native people of Europe would not necessarily show their emotions during our concerts and would surely not stand and clap and sway with the music.  To their surprise, there was not a concert where the audiences did not stand-up and sway, clap and even stomp their feet for encores.  Emotions spanned the extremes of tears of joy to praising the Lord in the church aisles.  In Stuttgart, the audience followed the choir out of the historic church where the concert was given to the sidewalks as it continued to sing.  People opened their windows in nearby apartments to enjoy the impromptu music.  There was no doubt that they enjoyed the music but that they were also inspired by the message the choir gave.  Each concert opened with the song that captured the gospel concert of the choir at Baha’i World Congress in New York, "We Have Come to Sing Praises."  Except the new arrangement of that song now includes four soloists who establish with the audience the reason we are there….TO  SING PRAISES, GIVE HONOR, and GIVE THANKS TO OUR LORD!

The tour allowed free time for everybody to see the cities we visited and meet the people who lived there.  Many took it upon themselves to share information about the Baha’i Faith with them and to invite them to one of our concerts.  It was this effort that yielded the large number of people who came to the concerts.  In several cities, the Baha’is were amazed that so many persons who had not heard of the Faith before had come to the concerts.  Many of them had been invited by choir members.

Choir members were often as affected by the presentation of the music as the audience, a phenomenon that is often true with gospel music when the depth of one’s beliefs are  captured in the expression of the music. 

It was indeed a coming of age for the choir as it sang from its heart and reached the spirit of its audiences. 

The rehearsals took on more than just learning the songs that the choir members had received earlier on rehearsal CDs, but they were a learning ground for many singers.  To help achieve this, Van had invited the outstanding non-Baha’i musicians who had assisted him at the 10th Anniversary Concert of the Baha’i Gospel Choir at the Arts Festival in New York a few years ago.  They included an old friend of his family, Dr. Joyce Garrett, who is well known in gospel circles for the strength of her choirs which include the Naval Academy Gospel Choir and the international award-winning Eastern High School Choir.  Also, he brought back Mr. Patrick Lundy, who is the founder of the Ministers of Music, an outstanding gospel choir in its own right, and is an accomplished pianist and director of gospel choirs.  Our drummer, Lester Saucer, is also a veteran drummer with gospel choirs and played with the choir in New York.  Since this was a teaching tour, Van had personally spoken to each of them about the Baha’i Faith and the purpose of our tour to make sure that our singing of Baha’u’llah and His teachings would in no way be compromising for them.  They graciously accepted the invitation.  As many choir members commented since the tour, it was masterful to see the three different directors work together with an unusual unity in teaching the various aspects of feeling and delivering gospel music.  

When the tour was over, many were asking "Where did the time go?"  It was an experience that we all hope will happen again some day.  We were as family.  The tour was unquestionably a success!!