By Annette Hinkle
Gospel music is not for the faint of heart or timid of spirit. It’s a musical style that often inspires audience participation and an outpouring of emotion, and here on the East End, usually the only place to hear gospel on a regular basis is on Sunday at one of the area churches where it is part of worship services.
But the Riverhead based East End Arts Council (EEAC) has a longstanding annual tradition in which area gospel singers are invited to step out of their home churches and come together for the Harvest Gospel Concert. The series of three community concerts is offered at venues throughout the East End the weekend before Thanksgiving. This year marks the 24th Harvest Gospel Concert and for the first time, the choir is coming to Sag Harbor for a performance at the Old Whalers’ Church. Interestingly enough, it’s not just singers from traditional gospel congregations who are invited to join — in fact, anyone from the community with an interest (and ideally, some experience) in singing is welcome.
“We have Methodists, Pentecostals, Jews — and some who don’t go to church at all,” notes Maryanne McElroy, the gospel choir’s artistic director.
McElroy, a Juilliard graduate with an opera background, is minister of music at Friendship Baptist Church in Riverhead where her husband, Rev. A. Charles McElroy, is pastor. She’s been with the choir all 24 years, and recalls how the Harvest Gospel Choir got started. It all began, she notes, with Zelotes Edmund Toliver, an acclaimed African American opera singer who was born in Riverhead.
“At that time East End Arts Council was doing mini-concerts and activities, but for some reason they couldn’t get the black community to come on board,” recalls McElroy. “They thought if they brought this man back and had the concert in an African American church, the black community would attend.”
But Toliver was under contract in Germany at the time, and at the last minute, wasn’t given permission to come back to the United States to perform. So Judith Weiner, then director of EEAC, changed the focus of the performance to a community gospel concert with the belief that if members of area churches volunteered as singers, it would have the same impact in engaging the local African American community. That first year, the concert was held at the First Baptist Church in Riverhead.
“For that concert, the choir, which was small compared to now, was African American and the audience was mostly white,” notes McElroy. “We went to dinner afterwards at Friendly's and some of the people who were Caucasian and had been at the concert asked if only black people could sing in the choir.”
“After that, we have never been exclusively African American. Our choir is ethnically mixed, made up of people from various religions and ecumenical backgrounds,” says McElroy. “This is our 24th year, and as time has gone on, it’s encompassed congregations across ethnic barriers and all worship experiences. There are some churches where its blessed quietness, and for others it’s let us make a joyful noise.”
Because it is an experience that encompasses a range of backgrounds, there were years when the Harvest Gospel Concerts were presented at places other than churches. But ultimately, it became clear that the energy in these other venues just wasn’t the same.
“Judith made it clear that it was not gospel as a worship experience, but an art form,” explains McElroy. “A couple times we attempted to take it to the high school, but it never quite worked. It was more like a concert with the audience sitting quietly. But gospel is really at its best with audience participation and free expression. It’s not like a classical concert. In gospel, you stand up and clap your hands.”
For that reason, the concerts have been held in churches ever since. In addition to the Old Whalers’ performance on Friday, the Harvest Gospel Concert will also be presented at Mattituck Presbyterian Church on Thursday, as well as the Friendship Baptist Church in Riverhead on Saturday. While traditionally, African American Baptist congregations have been where gospel music reigns, McElroy notes that the style of music heard at a service can no longer simply be assumed based on the faith tradition.
“That stereotype over music has changed,” notes McElroy. “There are Catholic churches that sing gospel. And what we call gospel has changed and so many genres are now incorporated. We sang anthems, negro spirituals and what we call traditional gospel. But gospel has taken on so many flavors including jazz, contemporary pop, country and western. Even hip hop — young people tend to bring that in.”
And like the wide world that gospel is today, McElroy includes a range of songs in the performance — that way, she feels, there will be something for everyone.
“We have a mixed bag – always do,” she explains. “Our audience is mixed, and we want to reach everyone. The older people like the traditional songs, younger like the more contemporary songs.”
“It’s like preparing dinner, I want something on the table all are going to like,” she adds. “I don’t have a plan, the music comes to me. I try it out on the church choir first and see how it goes.”
Not that McElroy has a lot of time to make changes once the ball gets rolling. This year’s choir has 78 members — and the group has very little time to work on the material together.
“We only do four rehearsals – each is three hours,” she says. “It’s insanity. Then we presume to go out and perform for the public. The other part of the insanity is we don’t audition either.”
The choir consists of three sections — alto, tenor and soprano. Usually McElroy finds there are not enough baritones to spend time creating a separate section. The singers age range is from older teenagers to those well into their 70s and 80s. Although she teaches voice and piano, McElroy stresses she doesn’t have time to give voice lessons to choir members, and advices those who join come with some singing ability or experience. The timing of the concert just before Thanksgiving allows singers to return to their own church choirs in advance of the holiday commitments.
“They carve this bit of time out for this, but I can’t hold onto them. It’s almost a phantom choir. They show up and then disappear,” says McElroy. “When it comes back together the next year, it’s a different choir.”
When it comes to music accompaniment keyboard, organ and drums is about it. There are also pit singers who fill in, but McElroy is careful to not add too much more to the mix.
“The sound is so big, that if we do much more, people wouldn’t be able to take it,” she says. “ So many people are so enthusiastic. If you’re looking for a quiet experience, this is the wrong place.
The Harvest Concert is Friday, November 19 at 8 p.m. at the Old Whalers’ Church (44 Union Street, Sag Harbor). Admission is free, but a free will offering will be taken midway through the concert for the Frances Ligon Music Scholarship program at East End Arts Council. Named for a late choir member and EEAC board member who was a proponent of making music accessible to all, this year’s scholarship recipient is 16-year-old Brandon Boardman, a junior at Riverhead High School. Brandon, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, has played piano since the age of five. He is working towards an advanced Regents diploma, and will be the first special-ed student to receive this diploma in the Riverhead Central School District.
