After two years of silence, the voices of the the Amherst Area Gospel Choir will rise again. On Saturday, Dec. 13, the group will present the Black Gospel Christmas Story at the Wesley Methodist Church in Hadley. The choir, now in its 16th year, went quiet during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a longing to sing — for their ancestors, for their successors — reunited the choir known by the community for their spirituality, and their commitment to spreading love.
Directed by Jacqueline “Jacqui” Wallace, the choir began in honor of Horace Boyer, a gospel singer and scholar who taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1973 to 1999. For many years, he directed the Voices of New Africa House Workshop Choir, an ensemble from the Five Colleges. Boyer died in 2009.
“He was a star,” said Wallace, who lives in Amherst with her husband Roger, who sings bass in the choir. (Their daughter, Mareatha, is the assistant director.) “When we heard he had passed away, we just wept.”
Roger Wallace said that his wife is also a force to be reckoned with. “Just so you know, Jacqui is the boss of the choir,” he said. “When she says jump, the only questions I have are ‘How high?’ and ‘When can I land?’”
Jacqui and the choir have been honored by the Massachusetts House of Representatives for their service. Last year, the choir received the 15th annual Jean Haggerty Award for Community Engagement and Social Change.
Roger, who taught math for 39 years in Amherst, met his Jacqui on Sept. 20, 1970 and asked her to “go steady” less than a month later, on Oct. 4.
He also remembers how many people attended the Amherst Area Gospel Choir’s first concert: 60. The following year, it was 200. The year after that, 280. The attendance for what became their annual Christmas concert climbed to 350 before the pandemic struck.
“We have no idea how many people are going to show up this year,” he said. “It’s an act of faith.”
Jacqui said that the choir’s mission is to “promote a gospel singing community that praises Jesus Christ and preserves and advances Black gospel music in its spiritual and artistic form.”
“We don’t go the white Christian route, that god is imperialistic,” she explained. “We look at it more like, Jesus walks with me because he was oppressed, too. We ask questions of ourselves and if anybody else wants to examine their own being, they can, too.”
The choir doesn’t proselytize. The group’s goal is to share sacred music that has uplifted generations of African Americans with its unshakable faith in a higher power, even in humanity’s lowest moments. There are 18 members, ranging in age from 14 to 75, who hail from different countries and practice different religions.
“We have Jewish people in our choir, but they love gospel, so let’s sing,” said Roger. “We have Quakers, so let’s sing. We have Buddhists, so let’s sing. The interesting thing is, wherever we go, there are always folks who just want to hear [us sing].”
Jacqui, a practicing social worker, admits that she has turned away from her faith at times, only to be surprised by a grace she didn’t see coming.
“There are times when I’d be closing the Bible on god, then I’d be trying to mind my own business, and the sweetness of something will come and I’m almost in tears,” she said. “I puzzle with questions when I hear about the latest ridiculousness, then I just have to take a breath. I believe it’s the ancestral breath, or just spirit, some beauty in the earth.”
“I think gospel music connects and opens doors,” she continued. “My hope is that people’s hearts will be open, too.”
On Saturday, the choir will sing a selection of 11 songs at 2 p.m. at the Wesley Methodist Church in Hadley. At 5 p.m., they will perform at a service for Jacqueline Bearce, a psychologist who sang alto with the choir, at Hope Community Church in Amherst. All are welcome to attend.
Melissa Karen Sances can be reached at melissaksances@gmail.com.