Community Of Song

Put 45 college-age men together and you probably don't think first of soothing harmonies. Yet, that's the result with the Baylor University Men's Choir. 
"We sing the gamut of chant to 'Oh! Susannah' and back again," says John Woods, a senior church music major from Austin, Texas. "The broad repertoire that we have connects us to different parts of the University. It gives us a voice so that we can connect to a lot of different people."
The group connected this summer with people in Kenya as part of Africa '05, Baylor's initiative to send 150 students, faculty and administrators on mission. The choir raised funds throughout the spring semester to enable 32 of its members to travel to Africa, says Randall Bradley, director of the Church Music Program and the Center of Church Music Studies, who became the BUMC director in 2000. 
"I think the trip represents our pioneering and innovative spirit," Bradley says. "It also fits in beautifully as part of our mission to honor God with our singing and to offer all that we do for God's glory."
To raise money, the group sold Singing Valentines on campus and sent quartets out to some 60 customers. "It pushed us to the absolute limit, but it made a lot of people on campus aware of the mission trip," Bradley says. The choir also sang in about six churches where it received donations for the trip, and members sold copies of the choir's CD, recorded in 2002.
When Bradley came to Baylor and began working with the men's choir, he was determined to help the group reach its full potential. "I told them that we were going to be good and sing well," he says. "You're going to be glad to have your friends come and hear you sing."
As proof of its hard work, the choir received an invitation to perform at the Southwest American Choral Directors Association in Little Rock, Ark., in 2003 -- a high honor, Bradley says. "That opportunity meant that our hard work was recognized by professional musicians in a region of about eight states. We worked incredibly hard for that convention, and to get a standing ovation -- we were very well received," he says.
They also have performed at a Texas Music Educators convention, Carnegie Hall and the Saint Bartholomew Episcopal Church in New York. 
Any male student can audition for the choir, and its diversity makes it special, says Musheer Kamau, a senior University Scholars student from Trinidad/Tobago and the choir's unofficial historian. "It's not just a bunch of men coming together to make music based on some commonality. In fact, the beauty of the music comes out of the choir's diversity," he says.
It works for Ramsey Zaki, a senior information systems major from Katy, Texas. "I sing in the men's choir because in here, everybody counts," he says. "I come back every year because of the community that we have."