A multicultural choir will give a performance designed to promote unity and diversity at the First Congregational Church of Ramona on Sunday, Feb. 23.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir of San Diego, also known as the MLK Choir, will perform a free concert at 3 p.m. in the church’s sanctuary.
First Congregational Church Pastor Wes Ellis said the church has hosted the choir nearly every year for the past several years and are excited for their return during Black History Month in February.
“Their music is always uplifting, and their message of hope, justice and unity feels especially important right now, with so much division in our country,” Ellis said. “It’s a chance to come together, be inspired and what’s possible when we stand for equality and comion.”
Ellis said he has been influenced by Black liberation theologians such as the late James Cone, a former Methodist minister who wrote the 1969 book, “Black Theology and Black Power.”
“I personally reflect on the history and influence of that gospel tradition,” Ellis said.
The volunteer choir blends traditional gospel with contemporary arrangements to celebrate the history and legacy of African American gospel music.
Performers will include Vonnie Switzer, an MLK Choir member for 22 years and member of First Congregational Church of Ramona for 25 years.
Switzer said attendees will be clapping to the lively music that is based on the original code songs of slaves, some of whom escaped to freedom from the Southern to the Northern United States.
“The slaves sang songs that sounded like hymns,” said Switzer, 85. “Those are songs that would give directions in code for how slaves might escape and get to the Underground Railroad.”
Ken Anderson, the choir’s music director and professor of gospel music at the University of San Diego and UC San Diego, teaches choir their parts of the songs by singing them first, Switzer said.
“Gospel is a different tradition,” she said. “We learn music by rote. In other words, we don’t have any written music.”
The MLK Choir has about 60 , but First Congregational Church will be hosting a smaller ensemble of roughly half that number for the Feb. 23 performance, Switzer said. The group has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City twice, in addition to performing in Europe, Washington, D.C., and in the Quebec province in eastern Canada.
Following the concert, attendees are invited to a reception in the church’s Pilgrim Hall that features light refreshments.
“This will be a wonderful chance to meet the choir , connect with neighbors, and reflect on the themes of the performance,” organizers say.
The church will be collecting donations on behalf of the nonprofit choir. The funds that are raised will go toward graduating high school students who plan to study visual and performing arts in college.
First Congregational Church of Ramona is at 404 Eighth St. For more information, call the church office at 760-789-3348.
