Community church choir celebrates America’s music

   America is called a melting pot because of the way her people of various cultures, races and religions have successfully combined to form a nation of multi-ethnic diversity.

   The nation’s ethnic diversity is also evidenced in the history of America’s music. Mumford First Baptist Church hosted a community choir to present Salute to America on August 12, 2007. Salute to America celebrated the variety of musical genres and styles that composers have written and the people of the great melting pot have popularized.

   Sheryl Jones and her brother Scott Marble, both members of Mumford First Baptist, produced Salute to America. Jones and Marble are very talented musicians and vocalists in their own right and have enjoyed a life long devotion to music. Jones chose the musical pieces and Marble accompanied the choir on both organ and piano. Past program themes have included immigration and the conflict of war.

   "Two times a year we get the community together for this choir. We try to choose a theme around American history and patriotism. This year we chose to celebrate the American composers. It’s such a treat to perform with a large group of people who really enjoy singing. It’s very satisfying and rewarding," Jones commented.

   The community choir rehearsed for four weeks to prepare for the program. Selections included hymns, spirituals, ragtime, folk, jazz, Broadway and inspirational. The songs were interspersed with narrations explaining the background of America at the time the popular compositions were produced. Several of the songs illustrated the strong spiritual influence between America, a God-fearing nation and it’s musical styles.

   "The musical styles of this program were so varied and I want to thank Scott for his ability to be so flexible to be able to play all different kinds of music," Jones said.