The Power and Glory of Song
Largo Choir of Prince George's Celebrates Faith, Preps Students for Life

By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 7, 2006

The challenge was to perfect "Battle Hymn of the Republic" before the Largo High School Choir traveled to New York to perform before the uniforms at West Point.

To achieve the goal, choir director Jeremiah Murphy called in reinforcements in the person of the Rev. Nolan Williams Jr., who oversees music at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Northwest Washington.

While Williams coached the sopranos and altos, Murphy, who has recorded three CDs on his own label, took the tenors, basses and baritones.

"I'm not feeling your glory!" Williams told his group.

"You've got to prepare yourself before you sing," Murphy challenged his.

Two hours later, the song was working. The girls' high notes sounded like angel-speak and the boys' low tones were as smooth as butter.

"Yeah!" boomed Murphy, in his trademark rich baritone, pointing skyward as if to acknowledge the involvement of a higher being. "That's what I'm talking about!"

Singing in the choir is a rite of passage for some black teenagers, particularly in Prince George's County, where several high schools boast choruses good enough to take their shows far beyond the school auditorium. Many of the county's choristers sing at churches, community centers and in competitions across the Washington region. Early yesterday, the Largo choir boarded buses for New York to perform four concerts in three days.

For many students, the choir becomes more than just a school activity. It can be a distraction that helps to keep them out of trouble and a stepping stone to a career.

"There is a tremendous kind of nurturing involved in being involved in a youth choir," Williams said. "When you think of the number of careers and ministries that have been launched out of choirs, it is amazing.

"If you randomly polled pop artists and asked how many belonged to a church choir or school choir, more than 75 percent would say they did, including singers like Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and [the late] Donny Hathaway."

Murphy, who has ushered thousands of young men and women through high school in his 17 years at Largo, said he has never had to break up a fight in his choir room. Many of his students have graduated to go on to careers in music, and even more have used their choir experience to get into college.

"Being in this choir really prepared me for what I'm doing now," said David Blount, 18, of Upper Marlboro, a freshman at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. "It was more than just the choir, though. It was Mr. Murphy.

"He saw through me when I didn't see my own potential. He makes us know we can accomplish big things."

Martin Foddrell, 17, a tenor from Suitland who will make the trip to New York, said Murphy "encourages you to do your best and makes us understand that singing is a way of sharing a gift from God."

"We work hard and we keep at it until we get it right. Learning that has helped me to know that I should always do the best that I can, no matter what the task."

And contrary to conventional wisdom, singing in the choir isn't considered, well, nerdy, at Largo.

"The whole school respects the choir," said Foddrell, a senior. "They know that God has blessed our voices so much. And they can't say anything bad about the choir because we are always on point."

Murphy, a renowned gospel performer in his own right, said he is trying to nurture young ladies and gentlemen as much as he is trying to develop singers. He takes his singers into as many different venues as possible to give them the experience of performing before a variety of audiences and to expose them to places and people with whom they might not otherwise cross paths.

In their trademark robes of robin's-egg blue, the choir has performed over the years on television, before then-first lady Hillary Clinton and at such public venues as Union Station. The singers traveled to London and Disneyland and shared the stage with such gospel powerhouses as Tremaine Hawkins, Richard Smallwood and Myrna Summers.

The full choir numbers almost 100, but only students who are in good standing are allowed to tour. That means being disciplined about showing up for rehearsals, doing theory homework and following Murphy's directions regarding posture, articulation and other particulars.

The students' repertoire extends from pop to classical, but singing the gospel is what they believe they do best.

The program for the New York trip includes 16 songs: "Battle Hymn"; "Jesus Loves Me," a percussion-driven Caribbean-style gospel tune written by Murphy; "His Mercy Endures Forever," a modern gospel piece that is the choir's trademark; "Hands Up!" a hip-hop gospel ditty, and classical pieces, including a tribute to those who died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Through the choir, Murphy said, his students learn to love and appreciate music, develop their talent for singing and work cooperatively toward a goal.

Like mastering "Battle Hymn of the Republic."