BY LOUIS C. WARD
LEESBURG – A conductor, a pianist, and strong harmonious voices delivered a very memorable evening of songs that emotionally and physically touched souls and hearts of the audience. There wasn’t any high tech apparatus to produce a desired sound. It was the old way Black folk used to get down when they sang, using what they had and doing it from heart… it was raw; and it worked very well.
It was the Bethune-Cookman University Concert Chorale, a contingent of Black students from various states and as far as Guyana, who, some would say: they had to be blessed by God to be extremely talented vocalists.
Sponsored by Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Commemoration Committee of Leesburg, the Concert Chorale performed a series of songs that included classical, Motown, gospel, poetry from Langston Hughes, and African and Negro Spirituals.
While the young adults performed, the expressions on their faces, their body movement and their gestures showed they were not only performing, they were connecting with the audience, taking them to a level where the leadership of the music director, the sounds of the pianist, and of those great harmonious voices engaged the audience to a point of total rapturous delight. The audience’s overwhelming enjoyment was realized when immediately following the end of singing every piece, the audience stood up, clapped, and shouted.
While performing their renditions of the various songs, the expressions and gestures of the young adults, freshmen through seniors, vividly showed their extreme joy when they overwhelmed the sanctuary with the Holy Spirit.
What a night!
