Photo by Jon W. Sparks
New Direction choir rehearsal.
Saturday night was Chicago’s moment at the How Sweet the Sound church choir competition.
The Second City’s Acme Missionary Baptist Church won the overall best award in the second annual event held in Atlanta.
Last year’s defending champion, Memphis’ New Direction Christian Church, also competed after prevailing in the regional finals last month at the FedEx Forum.
While choir members were disappointed they didn’t win the top prize, they were from the start much more excited about the experience of meeting and ministering.
“This was an opportunity to take gospel to a whole different realm,” said Joyce McKinney, who sings alto in New Direction’s Live and Direct sanctuary choir.
How Sweet the Sound has raised the profile of church choirs with this national exposure. Along with the title are cash prizes of $30,000 for the national winner.
The People’s Choice choir Saturday night was Atlanta West Pentecostal Church and runner-up was Burning Bush International Ministries from Detroit.
New Direction took home several prizes in October, when it won best in the Mid-South, best large choir (a $10,000 prize) and an audience favorite award (an additional $5,000).
“We did what we do best and were happy to be part of it, to give God the glory and let people know about New Direction,” Glenda Yancey, director of marketing and communications for New Direction, said Saturday night from Atlanta.
The choir performed Myron Butler and Levi’s “Set Me Free.” The dramatic choreography by Karren Williams had the choir coming on stage chained to each other, and as the music swelled, the chains were cast off and the singers moved and swayed to the upbeat rhythms.
Keenan Shotwell, minister of music at New Direction, said they had requested to do that song and when How Sweet the Sound approved it, he said, “It was nothing but the work of God because we’d been doing the song for two years — it was God setting us up for this occasion.”
Leading up to Saturday night’s competition was a steady stream of rehearsals to fine tune the performance.
“We went through several vocal rehearsals where we were tweaking the previous performance and looking at things we could do to improve on that,” said choir member Brock Brown. “About three rehearsals have been devoted strictly to vocal performance and then we’ve gone in to polish up the presentation.”
It wasn’t just about preparing the music. Some choir members had never flown before and the airplane trip to Atlanta caused some jitters.
“It takes a lot of hands,” McKinney said, “so those of us who are experienced have been nursing along those who are new to flying.”
No doubt it has helped that the competition’s organizers went all out for the choirs.
“They rolled out the red carpet for us and fed us well and slept us well,” said Yancey. “It was a five-star event.”
For more on How Sweet the Sound: howsweetthesound.com.
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