No matter what sort of music you are interested in, Logan Park High School student Bronwyn Wallace, encourages all to have a listen to a talented group of acapella gospel singers near you today.
"He allowed us to sing together one more time" resonated through the Nga Maara Hall across the weekend as over one hundred people attended a gospel workshop run by renowned musician Tony Backhouse who travelled down to Dunedin especially for the 27th and 28th of March.
The weekend consisted of emotive arrangements of old spiritual songs and more modern black acapella music, including ones that developed through the black civil rights movement.
The atmosphere while singing was empowering and emotional as some people were brought to tears during the compositions. I don't think I have ever witnessed such a reaction from a group of people in terms of a melody. It was truly inspiring.
As we stood in a huge circle around our conductor we were encouraged to swap to any part of the choir that we wanted and to indulge ourselves in any temptations that took our fancy.
This often meant that many people would sit in the centre of the circle listening to the arrangement of voices with their eyes closed, drifting away into a world of their own.
Our conductor had some odd signals including pointing to his rear when we had to go to the end of the song. One particular instruction was to walk around the hall and mingle between people whilst singing, to experience what our voices sounded like against others. This was particularly enchanting as all you could see were huge grins plastered over faces.
My favourite moment was when Tony gave us the opportunity to create our own tune. This entailed the group being given one line "Sing with the angels". Now, this may all sound a little pretentious but it was actually amazing.
To stand in a circle and listen and contribute to this beautiful sound resonating around the hall is something that will stay with me. You could stand and listen or you could contribute in any way, shape or form. We became one hum that listened and reacted to one another in a remarkable way.
On Sunday afternoon we performed to a jam-packed hall as the audience burst through the doors. We entered singing and performed an array of songs that we had learnt over the duration of the weekend. I think this in itself is remarkable- especially considering that everything went swimmingly.
For those of you who didn't make it to the concert or didn't even hear about Tony's visit, I strongly recommend you to look him up and keep an eye out for his annual visits down to Dunedin. I had never participated in anything like this before and I would encourage anyone else to do so. It's one of those things that will stay in my memory and will be hard to beat in terms of a solid weekend of enjoyment.
Thank you to Tony Backhouse for his time and sharing his talent with us all.
- Bronwyn Wallace Year 13, Logan Park High School
