Chronicles Choir

[Nikia Longino]

SinceI was in my first year, I have been a member of Durham University Gospel Choir. I also was their musical director last year and saw the choir through to the finals of University Gospel Choir of the Year where we came 2nd. This Easter, we had the incredible opportunity of being the supporting act for the famous British soul singer Heather Small, previously the lead singer of M People, in her concert at Durham Cathedral.

Gospel music and gospel choirs have served as vehicles of expression in the African-American community for as long as we have had a presence in this country. They carry the messages of Black joy and Black pain, Black celebration and Black suffering, and they are an important part of the legacy of a people who continue to shape the nation in which we live.

In conjunction with Black History Month and the NBA All-Star Weekend held in Cleveland, I was offered the amazing opportunity to perform Feb. 18, in a show organized by Gloria James, mother of our local basketball great, Lebron James, by singing the Black National Anthem with a professional choir.

Though the actual performance did not begin until 7 p.m., our day began early. Our call time was 11 a.m. We traveled through a snowstorm to go through the first run of the show. We ran through the show three times to make sure everything was perfect. In between those times on stage, we were assigned a dressing room backstage where we enjoyed breakfast, snacks, lunch, dessert etc.

I got to witness the transition from being a normal person to a performer. The women did their hair, makeup, and got all fancied up, while the men made jokes. I had a new viewpoint of my father as he was bombarded with interviewers and fans.

The House of Glo fashion show gave me new experiences with performing and exposure. Between learning the professional side of entertainment or meeting celebrities, it was an enlightening experience. The talent displayed was unmatched. This was an occasion I will never forget! This was the first event of its kind. Ms. James promises to invite us back next year to wherever the next NBA All-Star event is hosted.

The festive street fairorganized by the city of El Centro included vendors, food booths and beverages.It was part of a weekend holiday kick off that included the Dec. 7 LosVigilantes Christmas Parade.

Joanna Landeros and Brianna Lopez are seniors at Central and have been in the choir all through high school. This year, they convinced their reluctant teacher, Matt Gaede, to allow them and two friends to perform a choreographed dance while the choir sang.

Thank you so much for this wonderful recognition of the choir members at Madison, as well as the biblical history of choirs. It is a blessing that Madison still has a choir that we can participate in and use the talents God has given to honor and worship Him!

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The sanctuary, Celebration Choir sings in the 8:30 and 11:00 am services. The choir has a long history of endeavoring to provide quality music in the administration of these services, as well as music for special occasions and services, inside and outside the four walls of the sanctuary. While using a variety of styles and strong Biblical lyrics, the choir seeks to lead in worship (2 Chronicles 5: 12-14), teach Biblical truths (Colossians 3:16), and spiritually bless the hearts of the listeners (1 Chronicles 15:1-29; 16:1-43).

Orthodox Jewish pop is not a genre that many people will be intimately familiar with. Despite the upbeat, Rick-Astley-style drums, the catchy, repetitive lyrics and the genuine talent of the vocalists, it's not the sort of music that enjoys widespread appeal beyond Orthodox communities in Israel or the US.

Since it was posted a few weeks ago, the video of four Jewish boys belting out lyrics in Ashki-Hebrew (Think Oilam instead of Olam) has racked up gobsmacking numbers. Eight million views, 930,000 likes and spawning infinite duets with users adding their own vocals and lyrics to the catchy song capturing the hearts of Jews far and wide.

And it's not just Jews who love the song either, millions of teenagers from all kinds of backgrounds have posted their infatuation with the boys of the Miami Choir and their inimitable stage presence, designing T-shirts, making up dances and even swooning over what the singers look like now.

The JC spoke to two of the main soloists and found out how they're enjoying their viral moment. Binyamin Abramowitz, depicted in the viral video towards the end, wearing a red satin shirt and purple tie, now a medical student in New York, told the JC that the video's viral success was: "mind-boggling."

"The people loving it, these are people who don't even understand the language, or, you know, have any sort of interaction or relationship with Jewish culture, in general. So I think it's really incredible to see."

"The type of music really wasn't popular for non-Orthodox people even in terms of other Jews. It surprised me and still surprises me how I still continuously see these types of people just getting excited.

But one man who was not surprised by the MBC success story was Chananya Begun. Chananya is the son of founder Yerachmiel, a legend in the Orthodox pop world who started the Miami Boys Choir in Florida in 1977 before moving the group to the New York area in the 80s.

Yerachmiel, still the choir's director to this day, has worked with thousands of Orthodox boys holding yearly auditions and organising tours all over the world for the group. He also composes all the arrangements and writes the songs the group sing. Now in his later years, he entrusted the marketing of MBC to his son.

A few months ago, Chananya, who pleaded with his father to bring Miami to Tiktok, started the account believing that "something crazy could happen." Speaking from his home in Brooklyn, he said he always believed that Miami Boys Choir would take off.

"So eventually he agreed and he gave me decades and decades of content, and what a starting point that was. For me, the bet was that Miami is in the extreme in two fronts. In spiritual connection and real genuineness as far as who we are.

"And the other extreme is the pursuit of excellence that we bring, it's really the commitment to excellence, with the fact that it's a kid group of 11 to 14 year olds and that combination, I just didn't think it existed out there."

And judging on the reactions elicited on social media, he may be right. In the thousands and thousands of comments on the videos of the boys, there's a distinct lack of the usual antisemitic reactions to Jews going viral.

Begun again is not surprised, saying that he knew that the boys' authenticity, combined with the social media packaging would win out and people would simply see it for what it is. An absolute banger.

Nevertheless, he's still grateful for how positive an experience it was, saying: "The overwhelming positivity that we've been seeing is almost unheard of on social media to see such a reaction to something Jewish."

The response that the Miami Boys have got, while seemingly incredibly over the top, is typical of the virality that Tiktok brings. Compared to more established social media networks, the ease with which users can insert themselves into trends allows a whole world of swooning that wouldn't be possible anywhere else.

But will this change anything for the now-midtwenties viral stars? Both of the Abramowitz brothers say they'll keep going with their medicial and legal careers, but are open to collabing with the other soloists.

Chananya however has big plans, but isn't giving anything away just yet. "I can't answer that question. There's so much interest flying around right now which is incredible in itself it's an unbelievable thing, there might be some wider thing happening. We'll see what happens."

The two Clover Hill High School (CHHS) show choirs, New Dimensions and Iridescence, finally revealed their 2023 shows during performances from Jan. 27 to Jan. 29. The theme for the New Dimensions choir,...

Nicole Whitby teaches two show choirs at Clover Hill: Iridescence and New Dimensions. Iridescence is an all-girl show choir made up of 17 girls, and New Dimensions is composed of 23 students that attend...

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The A Cappella Choir at Stephen F. Austin State University will present its final program of the semester, "Odyssey," at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 10, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

"Odyssey" features choral music that chronicles intellectual, spiritual and physical wandering of the heart and mind, according to Dr. Michael Murphy, director of choral activities at SFA and the choir's conductor. Joining the choir will be Dr. Ron Petti, director of collaborative piano at SFA, and Jacob Rivas, graduate conductor.

The program will include the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Andrew Smith (North American premiere), Mari Esabel Valverde (Southwest U.S. premiere), Eriks Ešenvalds, James MacMillan, Stacey Gibbs, Joseph Flummerfelt and more.

Prof. Wiktor Wawrzyczek was born in 1911 in the Cieszyn region. He graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Faculty of Chemistry, where he also successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in chemistry. In 1950 he was employed at the Higher School of Agriculture in Olsztyn. Apart from being head of the Department of Chemistry, he also actively participated in the establishing of the Faculty of Agriculture.

?I think that the role of universities is not only to prepare students for their future professional careers, but also to promote culture, including music...?

That is why in 1952 an Academic Choir was founded by the Master, as students used to

call Prof. Wawrzyczek. He was their tutor and advisor for many years. In 1967 he said in

one of the interviews given to a journalist of the ?Olsztyn Voice?: ?Why me? Certainly,

the Department of Chemistry and Anonim?s or Mozart?s songs make a rather untypical

combination?During my studies I was a choir singer myself. I was also, for five years,

member of the Singers? Association ?Harmony? in Cieszyn. When I started my work at the

Higher School of Agriculture in Olsztyn, I noted that the students showed quite similar

and narrow interests, so it seemed necessary to organize some artistic groups for

talented individuals. During one of my lectures I proposed that those students who

would like to sing in a choir should meet to discuss this idea...?

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