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| Members of Israel Baptist Mass Choir participating in our rehearsal. The time has come! |
This year’s 33rd InterFaith Concert will feature many diverse artists who all hold a great musical talent. In the Israel Baptist Church Mass Choir, this talent includes individuals for whom music has been lifetime devotion.
Dr. Ola H.
Gathers is the Minister of Music for the Israel Baptist Church. Though she has
only been in the Israel Baptist Mass Choir for two years, she has a long history of
musical involvement. “All 72 wonderful years of my life,” she says with a
radiant smile. “Music is my life. And I have been involved in church music
since I was 8 years old.”
“My faith
comes from music because I am so into church music,” says Dr. Gathers. “And if
it’s not Biblically sound I don’t do it. So, when the music is presented it is
actually presenting the Bible musically to me. And it feeds my soul and it
enhances my faith.”
Dr. George
G. West, who will be playing the organ on Thursday, has also been involved in
music throughout his life, about 60 years he estimates. He was Chairman of the
Piano Faculty at Southern University and has performed and worked with a number
of prominent musicians, including Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin.
“I see
myself as a vessel, as being used by God,” says Dr. West. “There have been some
very exciting things that have been happening to me recently. Angelic voices
have been singing songs to me in my very head. And as they sing them I write
them out. So I have a large number of pieces that I’m getting ready to publish
and record, and that was given to me by other sources. So I see myself as a
vessel.”
The Israel
Baptist Mass Choir will be performing a traditional hymn and a spiritual for
the concert. “They present two different needs, for lack of a better word, but
at the same time a strong message,” explains Dr. Gathers. The song “Holy is the
Lord” is about giving absolute praise to the Lord, says Dr. Gathers. On the
other hand, the spiritual “City Called Heaven” is “about going through trials
and tribulations in life,” she says. “But the ultimate goal is that one day we
won’t have these trials and tribulations. We’re going to a city called Heaven.
So that’s why I selected those two.”
What do they
hope the audience gets from their performance? “We hope that they get a
spiritual message. That’s the goal of the church choir,” explains Dr. Gathers.
“That we send a message that the people will receive, and as a result of
receiving it, they will come into the church. And they will learn to love God
as we learned to love God. Secondly, that there will certainly enjoy for what
we have done. That they will love the harmony, the dynamics, and they will love
everything about it. And that they will see the excitement that we have when we
sing our music.”
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