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The Swarthmore College Alumni Gospel Choir is nothing short of a miracle. The miracle is not its imaginative musical arrangements, its talented musicians and singers, or the fervent style in which it performs its renditions of spirituals and contemporary gospel music. While the alumni gospel choir has all this, so do many gospel choirs. Rather, it is a miracle in its inception, creation, perseverance, and sustaining power through the years. Its members, many of them graduates from the 1970s, live all over the country yet travel at their own expense to rehearse and perform four times a year. They have produced two CDs, much of it original music, and have presented concerts in a long list of U.S. cities and in the Virgin Islands. The choir's members are devoted to each other, to a vision, and to the message of gospel music found directly in the lyrics they sing. The choir believes and lives its message. Although it was officially founded in 1986 during Black Alumni Weekend, the choir's roots go back to the early 1970s. Back then, some of its founders sported Afros and had an urge "to rebel against the 'uni-dimensional' approach to music" in the churches of their backgrounds, says Vaneese Thomas, Class of 1974, dubbed by other members as the choir's "heart and soul." She was also encouraged "to form a group where students of African descent could express themselves musically and spiritually without having to be validated by the dominant ethnic group on campus," she says. "As a result of the eventual support that this group garnered from the Swarthmore community at large, students of color have enhanced the music program at Swarthmore and have learned to appreciate their cultural heritage through music." In 1996, the Choir issued Hallelujah! Amen, its first cd, which they followed in 2000 with Star Gazer, a collection of holiday advent music. The net proceeds of their sales fund two college scholarships. In 1999, Swarthmore awarded the Joseph B. Shane Alumni Service Award to the choir for "outstanding service and commitment to Swarthmore College." When the former members of the student choir reunited on that particular Black Alumni Weekend, they found they just could not stop singing. Despite the disparity of their lives and locations and the demands of careers and families, they formed the alumni choir, an ensemble of now more than 30 voices dedicated to using gospel music "to speak in ways that words alone could not," says founding member Carolyn Mitchell, Class of 1974. "People often ask, 'Why do you still travel all the way to Swarthmore to sing?'" says Patrice Davis '77. "The Alumni Choir provides the same fellowship, rejuvenation, revitalization, and refuge we experienced in the student choir. In the choir we are just tenors, altos, sopranos, and basses singing our hearts out to glorify God. The common denominator for all the choir members is a belief in our music ministry." In her address to those assembled for the 1986 Black Alumni Weekend, Mitchell confirmed that the choir's purposes are to be ambassadors for Swarthmore and to "sing the praises of Almighty God." She also described how the group's singing informed their academic experience: "By day in sociology class, we talked about the nonexistence of black culture, and by night we sang, 'I've Been 'Buked and I've Been Scorned.' By day in biology class, we talked about the destruction of the ecological order, and by night we sang 'He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.' By day in psychology class, we talked about Freudian and Jungian approaches to our psychological disorders, and by night we sang, 'Fix Me, Jesus.' And by day in chemistry class, we talked about things that just don't change, like the equilibrium constant and the laws of thermodynamics, and by night we sang 'Expect a Miracle.'"The Swarthmore College Alumni Gospel Choir receives back what it gives, what it sings, and what it believes. Even more than expecting miracles, it relies upon them. About the author |
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