People who attended the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Pops concert on Saturday were treated to a pre-show performance by OBKY 1Voice, a new collaboration with Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. For those that missed it, the community is invited Thursday night to a public concert at 6:30 p.m. at the H.L. Neblett Community Center.
OBKY 1Voice is a choral ensemble for children ages 6 to 18 and is the brainchild of Titus Chapman, its choir director.
Chapman, a local worship pastor, said that while attending the Owensboro Public Schools’ fine arts festival last spring, he noticed that many of the black children in the choirs who weren’t actually singing. He committed himself at that moment to help this community find another way to express themselves through the arts using gospel music in a unified voice.
He contacted local musician Demarcus Curry about helping with the new project. Already involved with the summer program Worship on the Water, Chapman decided fall would be a better time to begin.
With Curry on board, Chapman, who isn’t from Owensboro, said he now had a connection to local black churches. He contacted the pastors and asked for one volunteer from each church to be the liaison to help Chapman build the choir.
Chapman met with interested families and since auditions are not required to be part of OBKY 1Voice and neither is singing experience, he set the date to begin rehearsals in early November and a concert date on Dec. 19. All rehearsals have been held at the Neblett center because Chapman said he has to “go where the kids are.”
“The idea behind this program is to make it possible for all youth in the Owensboro area to have an opportunity to express themselves musically while enabling them to be proud of their accomplishments,” said Chapman. “Our goal is to create an opportunity for all youth, with no obstacles. It’s free and open to everyone.”
Chapman didn’t know how many would show up to the first rehearsal at the Neblett Center on Nov. 7. He put 10 chairs out, but the room kept filling and he kept adding more seating.
“In the end, almost 50 showed up. I was so shocked,” Chapman said. “I asked [parents] ‘how did you find out about this? And they said Facebook.’”
Chapman told fellow Worship on the Water participant Jeremy Stephens, who is the director of operations at the symphony, about the new choir he felt called to create. Stephens said that this was just the type of program the symphony was looking to pilot.
Owensboro Symphony Orchestra came on board through their Music on Call community engagement program, which is underwritten by Owensboro Health.
Deputy CEO of the symphony Gwen Payne said that the program supports “random acts of music,” and an unmet community need.
“Titus saw an area that wasn’t being fulfilled,” Payne said. “Some children don’t have the opportunity to join another choir [for a variety of reasons].”
Chapman said that the symphony went above and beyond to get the choir off the ground.
“They have been the financial backbone and provided meals after the weekly rehearsals,” Chapman said.
Along with the guidance of the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, OBKY 1Voice connected to local community leaders, including Curry, Cathy Mullins, Chris Abel and Dante Kelly, who each play an integral role in the program’s success..
Chapman said that Abel, a local musician and Owensboro Public Schools’ music teacher who also served under Chapman during Chapman’s tenure as worship pastor at Owensboro Christian Church, heard a student singing gospel songs and asked where she had learned. The girl told him that Mr. Titus had been working with her at Girls, Inc. Abel reached out to Chapman, who told him of his choir and asked him to help get the word out.
“He said he would not only do that, but he also wanted to be a part of it,” Chapman said.
A meeting with Tom Stites, the coordinator of the fine arts program for OPS, gave Chapman his guiding thought for the choral ensemble — “Do I want a quality performance or a quality experience?”
“I want everyone to have a quality experience,” Chapman said. “I want all to have a good time in all interactions.”
And Chapman plans to do just that at Thursday’s concert. Several members will be singing solos who have never sung a solo before.
“It’s not about creating child stars, just making your child feel like one, no matter his or her talent level,” said Stephens. “OBKY 1Voice will bring kids together to celebrate their own voices with others’ to make 1Voice.”
Chapman plans to continue the choir in either spring or summer, but they already have booked a couple of events in January and February.
