The 22,000-seat Scottrade Center was transformed from a sports venue to a huge house of worship on Monday night as several of the region’s top church choirs convened to spread praise and celebration.
The Verizon Wireless “How Sweet the Sound” gospel competition made its way to the Gateway City for the second consecutive year in search of the region’s top choir.
St. Louis was the second stop in an 11-city tour that will culminate in Detroit with the national finals on Nov. 7. Eight of the top choirs from local churches got the rare chance to get their praise on in front of a crowd of more than 8,000 in this spirit-filled celebration of gospel music, St. Louis-style.
“St. Louis has a great history of gospel music from the likes of the O’Neal twins, Cleophus Robinson and so many others,” said multi-Grammy- and Stellar Award-winning composer and producer Donald Lawrence, who was the host of the event. “It’s not hard to find good gospel music in St. Louis.”
For just $5, St. Louisans were treated to performances from some of the city’s top choirs as well as special performances from gospel music’s top stars. They could also get personally involved in the show with live karaoke and youth choir and praise dance groups in the concourse area. Fans also filed text messages that appeared on the giant video screens in the arena. Fans chose the People’s Choice Award, voting by text message. Then came the show.
The eight competing choirs represented a diverse group of talented musicians and singers from different ages, races and denominations. They came from St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Jefferson County and the state of Kansas. All seemed to be in awe of performing in a huge venue such as the Scottrade Center in front of thousands of people.
“I have been singing all my life, but I’ve never sang in an arena like this,” said Erica Rogers, who performed brilliantly as the soloist for the Higher Heights Christian Church.
“This is overwhelming,” said Mike Nickelson, director of the Faith Celebration Choir of Festus, which emerged as the 2009 regional champion. “I’ve never experienced anything like this in my entire life.”
The “How Sweet the Sound” tour attracts some major star power in the gospel industry, including Donald Lawrence and iconic recording artists Marvin Sapp and Dorinda Clark Cole of the legendary Clark Sisters as judges. Each performed on Monday, but the night belonged to the local church choirs, which a concept that Sapp wholeheartedly embraces.
“The people at Verizon really understand the concept of the local community and the local church,” Sapp said. “Each region has its own flavor on how they interpret a song, and I think that’s cool.”
Although the choirs were competing for prize money and the chance to represent St. Louis at the national finals in Detroit, it proved to be a great bonding experience as all of the choirs spent much of the day together leading up to Monday night’s show.
“The comraderie between the choirs was incredible,” said Craig Johns, director of the Liberty Community Worship Center Choir. “We all had a chance to watch each other in rehearsal during the day and we ate dinner together. We all rooted for each other backstage.”
“This was really good because it brought the different denominations together,” said Erica Rogers. “This is how God would want it: all of the saints coming together in one place.”
All of the choirs rose to the occasion of the big stage as they put on spectacular performances. When the dust settled, it was an unheralded choir from Jefferson County that emerged as the big winner.
The Faith Celebration Choir of Festus, Mo. won three of the four major categories, including the overall St. Louis regional championship. They will represent the St. Louis area at the “How Sweet the Sound” national finals in Detroit.
Representing the Faith Baptist Church of Festus, this all-white, 72-person ensemble brought the predominantly African-American crowd to their collective feet with their electrifying performance of Andrae Crouch’s “Soon and Very Soon” that seemed to take everyone in the house by surprise. They also won the Large Choir competition and V Cast People’s Choice Award, which was voted on by the people in attendance. Faith Baptist won $10,000 for winning the Large Choir competition and another $5,000 for winning the People’s Choice Award in addition to their trip to the national finals. Each choir member also received Verizon phones and gift cards.
“This is surreal,” said Faith Celebration Choir director Mike Nickelson, who wowed the crowd with his enthusiastic showmanship. “We were kind of the wild card. We never expected this kind of response from the crowd. It was overwhelming.”
The winner of the Small Choir competition was Liberty Community Worship Center Choir, under the direction of Craig Towns. They won $10,000 for their performance of “God is my Everything.”
“This was an awesome experience for all of us,” Johns said. “There are no words that can describe this entire evening.”
The 2008 St. Louis regional winner, the New Sunny Mount Missionary Baptist Church Chancel Choir, also put on another powerful performance with their version of “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.”
The other choirs that participated in the competition were Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis Choir, Metropolitan Inspirational Mass Choir, Tabernacle of Praise Seventh Day Adventist Choir, Rezonate (United Methodist Church of the Rusurrection) from Leawood, Kan. and the Higher Heights Christian Church Music Ministry. All of the choirs received $3,000 for their participation in the regional event.
