Community choir builds bridges

Dr. Phillip Burgess directs an ecumenical community choir that will perform at the MLK breakfast Monday. Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

Dr. Phillip Burgess directs a community massed choir, which will perform Monday at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast celebration. Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

Members of a community choir rehearse under the direction of Dr. Phillip Burgess at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

Members of a community massed choir listen to director Dr. Phillip Burgess explain how they should approach "Peace on Earth." Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

Some local musicians have discovered that singing together in a community massed choir for special events throughout the year is a good way to connect with people of different denominations and races.

Dr. Phillip Burgess, director of music at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, describes the choir — which does not have an official name — as "ecumenical, intergenerational, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic."

"The music is kind of a vehicle," adds Burgess, who is directing the choir for its upcoming performance. While the music itself is important, it's not the ultimate goal of the group, he says.

"It's a bridge builder. The goal is to be a community-building ensemble."

The choir will be performing at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast on Monday at The Event Center.

Burgess says the choir was an outgrowth of a musical initiative that began when Salisbury hosted a group of visitors from Salisbury, England, in 2001.

A story the Post ran about that visit referred to a program at Catawba College that featured "musical selections from choirs directed alternately and jointly by Dr. Phillip Burgess of St. Luke's Episcopal Church and Phyllis M. Partee of Crown in Glory Lutheran Church."

Mayor Susan Kluttz had wanted a musical program that would be representative of the community, Burgess says.

Burgess says he worked with Partee and Ernestine Ingram to assemble a choir to perform by sending out letters to various churches inviting them to participate, including downtown churches and predominantly African-American churches.

Then, at Kluttz's request,a similar ecumenical choir was assembled in 2003 to celebrate Salisbury's 250th anniversary.

The choir then began to perform an annual Christmas program: "The Glory of Christmas."

The choir participates in other events throughout the year, including a yearly hymn festival directed by Kay Wright Norman.

Norman, who also directs the Jubilee Choir, has spent most of her adult life as a music minister.

The community massed choir is a good way for people to "unite in that realm of music," she says.

"Music is universal in terms of the way it connects people. It brings cultures together and can expand the horizons of what you think."

Directorship of the community choir has been spread around, Burgess says, with leaders including Partee, Ingram and Dr. Grant Harrison.

Harrison, who has been a soloist with the choir, says that it's been "a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know each other across denominational and racial lines."

The choir is a "cross section of the faith community" in Salisbury, he notes.

"It's been very enriching — it presents us the opportunities to sing music we might not normally sing." It's also good, he notes, to sometimes be "taken out of your comfort zone."

The group performs a concert annually for Black History Month. In the past, those concerts have been held at Gethsemane Baptist, Trinity Presbyterian, Soldiers Memorial AME Zion and Livingstone College.

Although there is "a good core group of singers," Burgess says, the membership of the group changes from concert to concert.

The choir's numbers fluctuate, but it averages about 65 singers for any given performance, he says.

The choir performs for special events and rehearses as needed, with no regular schedule.

The singers have a lot of fun together, he adds.

"It's amazing the connections people have made," Burgess says.

He's noticed that the group has been a good networking tool for volunteerism in our community.

Burgess says that one of the choir members approached him and told him how much she looks forward to each event, and how much she enjoyed the fellowship with other singers in the community was important to her.

Choir member Bob Freeman is a former choir director and Presbyterian minister.

When he retired 18 years ago, he says that he wanted to dedicate his retirement to better ecumenical and interracial relations.

"I feel very joyful about the fact that (the choir) is something we can all do together," he says. It's been a great joy."

Freeman has also sung with Kay Norman's Jubilee Choir, as well as the Concert Choir and the Choral Society.

"It's been a great joy to me to know that this is open to anybody who wants to come and sing, and I just rejoice in that fellowship it's fostering here in the community," says Freeman, who is also a member of the Covenant Community Connection, another group trying to foster better understanding and fellowship within the community.

"There is a need for more and more efforts to get along and understand each other, to speak softly and kindly whether we agree on everything or not.

"Music is a great leveler," he says.

"It brings us together. That would be the greatest joy to me in singing with the group. In many other ways we're a very diverse group but we can come together and be joyful and sing our praise and thanksgiving to God," he says.

Ecumenism — which refers to initiatives aimed at improving religious unity — is a priority for Freeman. Despite our different denominations, "we're still fundamentally Christians," he says. "It helps to remind us that we are all of the same group in that sense."

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The 24th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast and program, "Unity Works," will be held at 7:15 a.m. Monday, Jan. 18, at The Event Center, 315 Webb Road.

Tickets, which are $8 each, are still available at the Rowan County Visitors Center, which will be open today, Saturday, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For information, call 704-638-3100.

For more information about the choir, call Burgess at 704-633-3221.