‘I love standing with my back to the audience . . .’
INTERVIEW WITH . . .
Joyce
Garrett, Music
Ministry Director
Alfred
Street Baptist Church
Alexandria,
Va.
Part
2 of 2
 |
| Director Joyce Garrett prefers shaping sounds over singing. |
ALEXANDRIA,
VA—Joyce Garrett was a musical force to be reckoned with before taking the
reins of the Music Ministry of the Alfred Street Baptist Church. She was
founder and artistic director of Excellence Without Excuses, a youth
intervention and scholarship program for the award-winning Eastern High School
Choir of Washington, D.C.; enjoyed a distinguished career as choir director and
music educator, and is currently a conducting fixture on every major performing
arts stage in the metropolitan area. The Kinston, N.C., native earned her
undergraduate degree from Bennett College and her graduate degree from The
Catholic University. She holds honorary doctorate degrees from Bennett and West
Virginia Wesleyan College.
In Part 2 of my
interview with Ms. Garrett, she talked about the importance of music in
education and the roots of her passion—directing choirs. She and the Trinity
Choir from Alfred Street Baptist Church are once again headed to Europe with a repertoire
of hymns, anthems, spirituals and gospel songs. They will perform in Paris, Bruges,
and Amsterdam from September 20-29. Takeoff is in a few hours.
DoWriteMan: You play
piano and pipe organist, and you love the church orchestra. But you are a choir
director to the core of our soul. What made you fall in love with choirs rather
than conducting bands or orchestras?
Ms. Garrett: When I
was taking piano lessons as a child, and I think I was about nine years old
when I went to a choir concert at my high school. It was absolutely wonderful. I
looked at that choir and I looked at that director, and I said to myself, “I
really would love to do that . . . that’s what I want to do.” I wanted to get
into band when I got in seventh grade, and my family said no because they
thought if I learned other instruments I’d give up playing the piano. So they didn’t let me join the band and I
continued to take piano. Somehow, playing the piano, by age 12, I started playing
for the choir, and I began to get some skills and knowledge of what it is like to
work with choirs. So I always played for choirs—in high school, at church. And
when I went to college, I was an accompanist for my college choir whenever they
needed me. When I started teaching it was kind of understood that you followed
that route from pianist to music educator, and when you got into the classroom .
. . you were responsible for directing the choir. Whoever was doing
instrumental music would do the band.
DoWriteMan: You were
an accomplished pianist even back then. Why not singing?
Ms. Garrett: I
never wanted performing. I love standing with my back to the audience and shaping
what is happening up there.
DoWriteMan: So once
you got the baton in your hand, it became a part of you. Describe the magic,
how you feel when you’re directing.
Ms. Garrett: When
my back is turned, I’m communicating with this musical organism—the choir—and
it has to communicate with the congregation or audience. It is like passing the
torch, passing something to those people. I like shaping the sound rather than singing
it myself. I love to direct choirs. I love directing more than I like singing.
But I have to know how to sing to show choir members what I want. But I don’t
like it more than shaping that choral sound.
DoWriteMan: So what
makes someone a good choir director?
Ms. Garrett: A good
ear. One of the main things choir directors must have is a concept of what
sound they want. I never really got it out of a book, but I remember hearing different
choirs and knowing which sound I thought was a more beautiful. So I would just
imitate. The way I teach my singers is mainly to imitate the more beautiful
sound. It is not that another sound is incorrect. I don’t say, “That’s a wrong
way to sing an A,” because in another culture, that might be the right way to
sing that A.
DoWriteMan: But you
seem to be a very, very strict tactician. I’ve been under your baton when the
orchestra accompanies your choir. You are very precise in terms of the way you
want singers to enunciate and project personality in their faces and stances.
Ms. Garrett: That’s
right, because you cannot sing in front of people in 2014 with blank faces the
way we did in 1970. Things have changed. It is such a visual world now. If you
look at a commercial on television, there is never any one image that stays on
the TV longer than maybe two seconds. A choir now must do more than sound good.
It has to give you something visual as well.
DoWriteMan: So as you
think back on the years, have your choirs respected you or feared you?
Ms. Garrett: I
would hope a little of both. You know why? Choir members like to sound good
with a warmer sound and shaping the tones better. I think I get their respect
because they want to sound good and they know when they sound good. The respect
comes from the people when they hear the result.
DoWriteMan: You’re an
educator. Let’s talk education. It drives me nuts when budget-strapped public
schools start cutting music and arts to save money. How detrimental is that?
Ms. Garrett: Very
detrimental because the arts are something that can transform the lives of
children. Science and math are very important. We know they are important but
there is something about the arts that changes lives. It’s no good to have a
brain and be able to do all the science and the mathematics . . . but have no
heart. This is important, especially with our fractured society now. The
children need that heart.
DoWriteMan: Why? Give
me an example?
Ms. Garrett: Children
from dysfunctional homes can, through the choir, find a sense of family. They find a sense of love and respect in doing
the arts. There is something about a shared experience with your peers that is validating,
which helps your own self-esteem. The arts prepare children to accept
challenges, because you cannot do music with a three-minute rehearsal. You have
to work on it.
DoWriteMan: That develops
patience, right?
Ms. Garrett: It
helps teach perseverance. You cannot sing only gospel music; you cannot just
learn a three-minute praise song. There is a 20-page Mozart work that is really
going to test your endurance, test your patience, and your ability to hang on
to a long project.
DoWriteMan: Sounds
like discipline is a primary byproduct of being in the choir.
Ms. Garrett: It is.
Being in the choir, for example, means walking on stage, turning around and not
moving. That’s discipline. A lot of these children, and even some adults, need
a disciplined mind. Being a part of any of the arts helps us reach beyond our
grasp, because you cannot get to the top, you cannot play like a virtuoso in
two years. You have to reach for it. It has to be in the in the future. You
have got to set a goal.
DoWriteMan: What are
your expectations as you embark on another European tour?
Ms. Garrett: We
have adults from 30 to 92 that will be in this choir. I hope our European
audiences see that Trinity is not a special auditioned ensemble; that these are
regular people who are young, middle-aged, and older who can perform wonderful
songs. I want them to feel our fellowship as church people and feel the love.
·
Check out Part 1 of DoWriteMan’s interview with Ms. Garrett below.
· DoWriteMan will be blogging
throughout Trinity’s European tour. Just click the button to FOLLOW and receive
automatic updates.
· Next up: Trinity’s Repertoire
for the European Concert Tour.
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