Choir to embark on Concert of Hope tour

Rehoboth choir director Bob Ippel directs the students while Gail DeYoung plays piano during a rehearsal Friday afternoon at Rehoboth Christian School in Gallup. The choir will be traveling to the Gulf Coast March 24 to April 1 as part of the "Concert of Hope." [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

REHOBOTH — Students in the Rehoboth High School Choir will be offering Gulf Coast residents more than just music on their upcoming "Concert of Hope" tour.

During their tour of Mississippi and Louisiana, which will run from March 24 through April 1, the students will be working on a number of clean-up and restoration projects in neighborhoods damaged by last year's hurricanes. They will be doing so much service work, said choir co-director Bob Ippel, that they have reduced the number of singing engagements to only 10. During the choir's last major tour, he explained, the students performed in 27 concerts while participating in smaller service projects.

But this year, because of the enormous devastation in the Gulf Coast region, Ippel and fellow choir director Gail De Young wanted give their students more volunteer service work opportunities.

Local residents can assist in the tour's mission by making donations to help fund the students' work, which will primarily consist of cleaning up and replanting parks and yards. In an example of student singers honoring the memory of a legendary musical figure, one of the targeted projects is to replant the Louis B. Armstrong Park in downtown New Orleans.

Local residents can also catch a sneak preview of the choir's "Concert of Hope" musical program this week. The choir will give a free performance at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 16 at the Rehoboth Christian Reformed Church. A collection to help fund the service work will be taken during the concert.

The theme for the "Concert of Hope" musical program, explained De Young, is there is hope in the midst of despair because of Christ. The program begins with a "cry for help in a broken world," added Ippel, and then becomes a musical celebration of praise.

The concert will debut "The City of God," a piece of music written by David Poole, the director of de Profundis of Albuquerque. Poole wrote "The City of God" for the Rehoboth Choir after de Profundis performed with the choir during the 2005 Christmas season.

Prior to last year's hurricane season, Ippel and De Young had planned to take the choir on a "Heartland Tour" to cities in the Rocky Mountains and Midwest. But with the destruction of many communities along the Gulf Coast, Ippel found his own heart being tugged in a different direction. And coincidentally, he explained, doors started closing for the original tour while other doors started opening up for a Gulf Coast tour.

There are a few doors shower doors in particular that still need to open. While in New Orleans, the choir will be sleeping on the sanctuary floor of the Calvary Baptist Church. Because of damage to the church, the students will have to travel some distance away to cook and eat in another church's kitchen. Neither church has showers, so Ippel and De Young are currently looking for shower facilities near Calvary Baptist, which is on the west bank of New Orleans.

According to Ippel, the purpose of the choir tours is always "to be a blessing" to the people the choir encounters. However, he admitted, the greater impact is always felt by the students, and he expects the same will be true for this tour.

In New Orleans the students will get a glimpse into one of the South's major urban centers, and in Mississippi the students will meet a number of people from the state's rural African- American community.

In Jackson, Miss., the choir will perform in a very large church that is affiliated with John M. Perkins, a black civil rights leader who is known for his ministry of racial reconciliation. In the rural area around Rolling Fork, Miss., the choir will sing in a joint concert performance with a mass choir made up of about 60 singers from various "plantation churches," or black churches that have been in existence for generations and are located on land that used to be plantations.

"We thought it would be a great opportunity for the kids," said De Young of the students' chance to meet people from the Gulf Coast and see the region's needs first-hand.

Ippel said the students are looking forward to singing for people who know and love gospel music. On the other hand, he joked, that's also their greatest fear singing for people who really know and love the music.

Through a series of fund-raising events, choir members have raised all the money they need to pay for their own travel expenses. What they are looking for, Ippel and De Young explained, are donations so the choir can purchase landscaping materials for its service projects.