SING IT!
Spirited Battle of Gospel Singers Is Waged Downtown

By Carl Glassman
POSTED MARCH 1, 2008

For one day last month, the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center was transformed from a sunlit retreat for tired shoppers into a very different kind of sanctuary.

On Feb. 16, gospel choirs from as far away as South Carolina and as close to home as the Bronx took to the stage there to sing the Lord’s praises…and to compete for $10,000 in prize money. Twenty  choirs performed in the Eighth annual Pathmark Gospel Choir Competition, and hundreds of people came to listen and watch the national sing-off held in honor of Black History Month.

What they saw was a study in contrasts. Some choirs were restrained and symphonic, such as Nate Brown & Wilderness from Washington, D.C. The 13 singers, dressed all in black, filed quietly onto the stage and performed a contemplative piece that brought to mind medieval choral music, the men’s low voices alternating with the women’s soaring tones. Brown directed with subtle hand gestures, as if conducting an orchestra.

The mood took a U-turn with Youth on Fire, from the Bronx. A group in colorful sequined berets bounced onto the stage to a rapid drum beat. “The L-o-o-o-o-rd is blessing me!” they cried out,
clapping and dancing, shimmying down to the floor and raising their hands in the air. The choir director pointed to the sky and said, “I know this is a competition but I just want to say, ‘Thank you, Lord!’” The choir rose up behind him, crying out: “Thank you! Thank you!”

Just when it seemed the song was over, the group would start singing again, stop for a beat, and break into song once more, James Brown style. The crowd went wild; several people stood up, calling out, “Amen!”

The morning was dedicated to the Youth Division, in which eight choirs competed. (The Ben L. Smith High School Gospel Choir from Greensborough, N.C., won first prize, after traveling all night to take part.) But some teenage groups had been placed in the afternoon competition, known as the Open Division.

“We’ve won the Youth Division three times, so they moved us up so it would be more of a challenge,” said Samuel Cromwell, choir director for the all-girl Elizabeth Seton High School Gospel Choir from Bladensburg, Md.

Elizabeth Seton was one of the largest choirs, and with 75 girls in pink and white choir robes, their stage presence was dazzling.

The group started quietly with a slow jazzy keyboard and four or five girls softly singing, “If I don’t praise the Lord, the rocks are going to cry out.” (The lyrics refer to a Biblical incident in which Jesus says that if his followers don’t praise him, the stones themselves will.) Gradually other members of the choir joined in, until the phrase thundered across the Winter Garden, stopping passersby in their tracks and bringing audience members to their feet.

This choir, like its competitors, had only 15 minutes to win over the panel of judges, which included the music minister at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church and the artistic director for the Harlem Opera Theater. After the performance, the perspiring choir director was less enthusiastic than the audience. “We’ve had better days,” Cromwell said. “But we enjoyed ourselves.”

Despite the spirited competition, singer after singer said that winning was not their primary purpose.

Ta’Nisha Cole and fellow members of the Richland Northeast High School GAP Choir from Columbia, S.C., waited to perform in a corridor off the stage. “If you’re giving God the glory, it doesn’t matter if you’re victorious at the end,” said Cole, as she combed another singer’s hair. “It’s about changing people’s lives.”

Nadene Lawrence, of the Adrian Bullens & The Remnant Choir from Orange, N.J., agreed. “It’s a ministry,” she said.

“But $5,000?” chimed in her choir mate Janet Cooke, referring to the first place prize in the Open Division. “We could do a lot with that!”

During a break in the afternoon’s performances, emcee Lamont Saunders looked out into the crowd and said, “I think we’re gonna have church in here today!”

Not long after, a woman in the audience stood up in the middle of a song and opened her arms to the vaulted glass ceiling. “We’re on fire for you, Jesus! We’re on fire!” she cried. “Hallelujah!”

Heads turned, there were a few scattered “amens,” and a security guard discreetly asked the woman to sit down.

But one didn’t have to be gripped by religious fervor to enjoy the music.

Shoppers walking through the Winter Garden bobbed their heads to the beat. Dads held their kids on their shoulders and danced along. Christine Kong and Joshua Bernstein traveled from midtown for the event. “We like gospel music, and this is a great space,” said Bernstein. “We have a plan: shopping, gospel music and a movie.”

By 5 p.m., the results were in.

Elizabeth Seton High School pulled in yet another win, at third place, despite their choir director’s lukewarm assessment. The United Voices of Christ, a boisterous choir from South Carolina State University, won second. And in first place was the harmonious Nate Brown & Wilderness, formed through an ad that Brown placed on Craigslist just last October.

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