Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 26, 1994 TAG: 9405260199
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Alleluias," said Thomas, "gotta sound like liquid gold."
The choir was polishing off an anthem sung in Latin, "O Sacrum Convivium," in a nine-hour choral workshop that involved singers from 14 Roanoke congregations. After rehearsing 10 anthems, the adults and an additional 75 children and youth sang them for a public concert Saturday afternoon at First Presbyterian Church.
While Thomas, a clinician in musical circles, rehearsed the adults, his colleague Henry Leck was putting children through similar rigorous discipline in an anthem, "Thanks Be to God," that included part of the civil rights song "We Shall Overcome."
Both Thomas and Leck are notable nationally for their training choirs to sing with pure vowels and breathing so precise that those in back of the sanctuary usually can hear every word. Both men are professors of music with doctorates in choral conducting as well as traveling teachers; Thomas is at Florida State University in Tallahassee, and Leck has two full-time jobs in Indianapolis, Ind., as a professor at Indiana University and as founder and director of a children's choir with about 700 members.
The Choral Workshop and Festival was the fourth and most elaborate that a group of Roanoke church musicians has arranged in the past four years. Phyllis Wampler, music director at Raleigh Court United Methodist for 15 years, and Joseph Kennedy, who holds a similar job at South Roanoke United Methodist, said they were inspired by the workshops many church musicians attend at conference centers.
The largest group of singers, 30, came from Calvary Baptist with lesser numbers from United Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Church of the Brethren and the evangelical Christian congregation, Grace Church. For the first time in the festival's history, a black congregation was represented by two adults and three youth from Maple Street Baptist, Wampler said.
The workshop is sponsored and subsidized by the Roanoke Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, a grant from the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and from a fee from each church which sent choir members.
Robert Chapman and Beth Maynard were pianists for the groups of adults and children, respectively.
Several singers said they were delighted to be able to learn from Thomas or have their children in Leck's choir.
Misha Paiement, 13 with a mouth full of braces, was one of the junior high youth who learn from Wampler each week. Her first such workshop, she said, was a lot of fun.
Among the adults, Jennilou Eades said that although she's been soloing in the Calvary Baptist choir for more than 30 years, "I always learn to improve my diction at workshops like these."
Even a choir of 10, such as Becky Kennedy plays for at West End United Methodist, can benefit greatly from the talent of Thomas, she said. Seven of the 10 were at the workshop.
"It helps me to see the conductor keep the attention that's so important for good singing," said Annette Baxter, an alto from Maple Street Baptist.
Chuck Gilliland, noting the lovely day for golf, yard work or doing things with his family, said he wouldn't have missed the festival. Singing bass on the front row, he expressed the views of many, "Nothing more I'd rather be doing than hearing such a big and beautiful sound."
by CNB