Voices in concert: Singers from all ages, backgrounds and communities combine in Charleston Community Chorus

On Sunday, Oct. 30, about 105 fifth- and sixth-grade students stood in front of the Charleston Community Chorus at the United Methodist Church in Charleston, Missouri, all waiting to envelop the sanctuary in sound.

With full pews and overflow chairs needed, the expectant faces in the audience waited as the choirs settled into place in preparation for the memorial concert to come.

This particular concert would be routine for the Charleston Community Chorus and its director Kerry Davis, but would be the first traveling performance for many of the students in Stephanie Myers-Fridley's Jackson Middle School Treble Choir.

Davis, a Charleston native who relocated to Cape Girardeau about three years ago, said the community chorus originally began because an arts organization he was involved in required a performance art-oriented project to try and reach a larger audience.

"I knew there was a base of people to draw from, so just like a fool, I thought, 'This won't be a big deal, we'll just do it,'" Davis said, laughing. "So we did, and that first season was mind-blowing, I think, for all of us. I don't know that I thought it would work so well or that we would have as much participation as we did."

Patricia Wilkins sings a solo during the Charleston Community Chorus fall concert Sunday, Oct. 30, at United Methodist Church in Charleston.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

Since Davis began working with the choir about five years ago, he has helped organize a number of concerts for the Charleston community at the United Methodist Church on Marshall Street.

"It's kind of a treat for this little community, because our repertoire is fairly sophisticated, especially for a group of mature volunteers," he said.

This year, Davis collaborated with Myers-Fridley, a music teacher at Jackson Middle School.

A friend of a friend and a fellow Charleston native, Myers-Fridley began speaking with Davis on Facebook during the summer, and they eventually decided to bring their choirs together for a fall concert.

"It just kind of happened," Davis said.

For the concert -- which this year was a memorial concert in honor of All Saints Day the following day -- Davis said he wanted to "have an uplifting edge, while sort of touching on the subject matter of death and the afterlife and the hopeful parts of that."

No stranger to what some may call dramatic and dark musical choices, Davis said he tried to find concert pieces with some levity, but that still had a sense of honoring those lost.

"I do think it's important to reflect and remember the past and the people who've gone before us, but to not let the past have first place," Davis said. "This will be sort of an opportunity to have that moment, with one foot in the past and one foot pointed toward the future."

The combined program included an array of song selections, ranging from traditional spirituals like "City Called Heaven" to more modern pieces like "I Know Where I've Been" and Dolly Parton's "Light of a Clear Blue Morning." Also, one of the middle school choir's songs was a version of "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need" arranged by Myers-Fridley.

The community chorus, which has no religious affiliation but contains members of various faiths, includes residents of Charleston and other local areas, such as Cairo, Illinois.

Suzy Holland, a soloist for this year's concert and a Cairo resident, said she has been part of the chorus for the past three years and that it has been a way for her to connect with others in the area.

"We're all musicians, we're all organists at churches, and we get connected through that or funerals and weddings. Â… Along the way I've met friends, and it's a wonder that they were just right here across the creek," Holland said.

Marilyn Miller, an original Charleston Community Chorus member, agreed.

"You become a family," she said. "We pick up a few new ones here and there, but the Cairo bunch, we even call one another family from across the river because we didn't know any of them before this started."

Tyrone Coleman, mayor of Cairo and the most recent addition to the chorus, said he had been to five or so practices before the concert.

"I've always had a feel for music as far as singing, and I was talking to Anthony (another choir member) and he said there was a need for a solo part, so I said, 'Well, I'll come and give it a shot,'" Coleman said.

Thankful to have his spark for choral music reignited, Coleman said he will continue to be part of the chorus "as long as they'll have me."

"I really enjoy it. It's been kind of like a highlight of the week for me to come, and these guys are good," Coleman said. "I mean, they're good, they all read music, and I haven't tried to read music in 50 years, so it's all coming back to me. It's just been a pleasure to listen to these voices."

Davis said the concert created an opportunity to bridge the gap between the secular content of a normal public school choir concert and the potentially confining nature of a religious concert to create a good mix of content for listeners.

"[The community chorus] was an independent project when we started and now even more so that way, so it's weird how that kind of frees you up. You can kind of do whatever you want to do, and there's something to be said for that," he said.

Myers-Fridley said one of the challenges for the concert was having to rehearse separately and then combine for the first time on the day of the event. The treble choir arrived at the church two hours before the concert to get a feel for the space and work through some things with the community chorus.

"We just had to do our part and you just have to make sure you're solid on your end when you go to put something like that together," she said. "You need to make sure your singers are so comfortable and know their piece of it so well that they're not thrown off by suddenly combining with a lot of other singers."

Although Myers-Fridley hasn't lived in Charleston for years, she said her choir director at Charleston Junior High was an inspiration to her and pushed her to pursue a career in teaching music.

"I decided way back then that, 'Oh, I want to do what he does because it was so great for me; it would be wonderful if I could help other people have this experience,'" she said. "It's really neat to go to work and get paid to help people learn how to do something that's really fun that you really, really like to do."

In the end, Myers-Fridley and Davis agreed the concert was a success.

"It seemed to go well and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. The audience seemed to be very pleased; I can't say a bad word," Davis said.

"It was really successful," Myers-Fridley added. "I think both of the choirs that were involved really had a great experience listening to each other and singing music together and it was really well received by the audience."

Leading and contributing to the Charleston Community Choir is an outlet for Davis to give back to his hometown community, and he said seeing children and young adults continue to be involved in choir and musical projects is inspiring and gives him hope for the future.

"The idea that kids are doing that and not just tweeting and Facebooking and what else it is they do is hopeful to me," he said. "I think it just all looks different than what we've known."

lyoung@semissourian.com

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