[Note: this extremely long and somewhat boring report of the Tremont Temple Gospel Choir’s participation in the “How Sweet the Sound” competition is assembled mostly for our members who were not able to join us in Newark NJ on September 22. Also for family members who likewise were not participants. My recollections haven’t really been confirmed by anyone, so might be slightly flawed on occasion.]
Here was the plan: we would travel to Newark by auto and train; some would stay at the Best Western Robert Treat Hotel, a few blocks from the Prudential Center; the others at the Africa Inland Mission (AIM) Headquarters in Pearl River, NY, about 45 minutes north of Newark. Three of our number — Chelsa, Wesley and Jane – would leave on Tuesday via Amtrak, kind of an advanced scouting party for the rest of us.
The remainder would travel on Wednesday as follows: Daryl, Gail and Mal riding with Will, meeting at South Station at 7:30am; Jacquie, Palmera, Jessica, Dawn, Thelma and Amy riding with Dick in a 7-passenger rental van, each rider to be picked up door-to-door, except for Amy, who would be met near Newbury and Mass Ave in the Back Bay. Geoff and Kathy would come by themselves, as they were travelling on to Washington after the event, and not directly returning to Boston. Here’s how it played out.
Cell phones came in quite useful and keeping track of one another: where the traffic was bad, which exits to take, where to park, etc. For example, Daryl arrived quite early (6:45am) at South Station, and there was a little uncertainty on his part as to whether to meet at the bus terminal or the train station. “Train” was correct, and Daryl needed to get over to the train area, the correction made via a couple of phone calls to Dick and Will.
In Dick’s case, the first pick-up in his mind was Palmera and Jacquie at Jacquie’s house at 6:30; in Jacquie’s mind it was Jacquie and Palmera at Palmera’s house. A call, and the correction was made; and further calls were made to Jessica, Dawn and Amy to communicate the slight delay. No call to Thelma, since she was already sitting outside waiting for us. In a sharing of navigation duties, Jacquie directed the route from her house to Jessica’s location in Hyde Park (at her daughter’s house), and next Jessica provided the stop-light reduced route through Roslindale to Dawn’s place. Then Dawn had the perfect and I might add sneaky route through heretofore unknown streets in JP to Columbus Ave in the mad dash to the left turn on Ruggles St. at 2.3 mph (yes, it was “rush hour”), and finally to a patient Thelma, still on the bench in front of her building on Hemenway. A couple of stoplights later, and there was Amy waiting on Newbury St. near Best Buy; then a green light at Mass Av allowed us to rush across and down the ramp onto the Masspike, in the great race to Newark with Will and Geoff.
For a while Dick’s car was winning, but since we were not going directly to Newark (we needed to stop by AIM in Pearl River to get our rooms and change before heading on to Newark), we gracefully exited I-95 in Westport, CT to allow Will to take over first place. Geoff for his part decided to forego I-95 in CT entirely, doing the I-84 to Danbury, followed by I-684 and then the Hutchison River Parkway to the Geo. Washington Bridge. A good move as it turned out because of a fairly hefty road construction backup on I-95 in Westport.
Dick’s car needed to exit I-95 and cut across Westchester County on I-287, crossing the Hudson via the Tappan Zee Bridge. Jacquie felt it best to distract herself and the rest of us with humorous anecdotes during the entire 2.8 mile crossing, even though she did NOT know that in 2009 the bridge was featured on The History Channel “The Crumbling of America” showing the infrastructure crisis in the United States, and that it was built in the 1950’s to only last for 50 years.
Once on the west bank, our directions to the AIM headquarters worked perfectly, and we arrived at the property at 12:02pm. Without going into all the details, I’ll simply say that people there could not have been nicer, and the accommodations better! They are wonderful God-anointed people at AIM! We were taken to our rooms, and there we proceeded to change from our travel clothes into our performance dress. I even talked Dawn into doing a quick iron of my white shirt! At the pre-arranged and agreed-upon deadline of 12:30pm, with no one appearing, I set into motion plan B at exactly 12:34pm: clearing my throat LOUDLY near the door of rooms 202 and 204, and… it worked! Out they all came,….pretty soon… and we were ready to roll!
The AIM people gave us great directions for the left and right turns required to zig-zag across the border into Jersey and get on the GSP (Garden State Parkway) at exit 172. After about 15 miles we miraculously found the exit to NJ21, and then continued on for another 20 minutes or so into more-that-beautiful downtown Newark. We turned right on Center and left on Mulberry, and not only was the Prudential Center (PC) now in sight, but also Will, Gail, Wesley, and some others walking down from the Best Western towards the South Entrance on Mulberry and Lafayette. I dropped my riders off at the corner and then went shopping for the best rate for parking. I selected a lot right across Mulberry from the PC, at only $20. Interestingly Geoff and Kathy chose the same lot at the same time. So we walked over to the PC more or less together, to join the rest of our troupe at around 1:45pm, well ahead of our 2:00pm deadline.
Once inside the lobby, the big deal was to get checked in, get our wrist-bands and dinner tickets. However there were about 70 or 80 choir members ahead of us, and to once again make a long story short, it took FOREVER to sign in those choir people! We filled out a brief form, and then basically stood around waiting for about an hour before they were ready for us. They had asked that we line up in the same order as the list was that we had sent a month earlier, and that was alphabetical by last name. We registered with Hope Allen, and she was GREATLY grateful that we had lined up in order. While it didn’t help us win, it still felt good to assist someone under a lot of pressure, in at least a little way.
Once inside, one of the wonderful HSTS staff persons led us to our “green room” – we were “Choir 2,” the room was actually light gray in color. It is ordinarily used for the press, so had these little cubicles for laptops, etc., but all we really needed were chairs and a mirror. That was basically our home for the next seven hours. Whenever we needed to leave for a rehearsal or performance, we were led out by a staff person, and someone else guarded the room, allowing pocketbooks, and yes (gulp) a few PC’s to be safe while we were elsewhere.
Fairly soon, our first venture out was to be given a tour of the backstage area, how we were to line up and ascend the stairs to the stage, where to stand and how to exit. Basically we were to enter back-row first, stage right, and when done we were to exit stage left, back row first. Interestingly in both cases, they had an HSTS staff person available to give us a hand at the steps, if needed. Michael Chico gave us additional instruction at that time, including how to proceed at the time of our dress rehearsal, and at the actual performance. We were then led back to our Gray Room, where we were told to wait until called for the dress rehearsal.
Since we were now all together (except Geoff and possibly Mike Leach), Chelsa suggested that we enter into a time of prayer. We did so, with many members leading out in prayer. I think we all felt at that point that this whole event was committed into the Lord’s hands, and that His Will would be done. That certainly allowed us to have a sense of peace to accompany the atmosphere of excitement.
After quite some time, they came to get us again, this time for our dress rehearsal. That included first of all our processing in from stage right, and then standing in our positions while the lead guy (can’t remember his name, just call him LG) gave us all the performance instructions we needed, how it would work, how afterwards as we were exiting, Chelsa would walk over toward the judges and stand there like in American Idol and get the opinions on what we had just done. When LG finished, it was time for us to go through the song, for timing purposes, as well to allow the sound people to tune everything. So we did so, and as I remember, we stopped once in mid-song, and then went through the whole thing one time. Please raise your hand if you remember differently.
When finished with our dress rehearsal, we dutifully trotted back to our home-for-the-evening, and waited until called again. After some time – an hour? – we were called back for the rehearsal of the finale song, “Back to Eden.” This time we sat in the audience, along with many of the other choirs. However, two of the choirs in the “large” category were still going through their dress rehearsals, so we heard the same lecture by LG to them. The first of those choirs was from the Marble Collegiate Church in New York, and they sang? an interesting arrangement of “It Is Well with My Soul” that included among other things a soloist “hitting” a high E, actually from several competing directions, if memory serves. The choir itself stood motionless and emotionless through the entire song. [Note: the previous sentence is a complete fabrication 100%.] I will say this, sitting about six rows from the LOUD speakers, the noise from the amplified choir and band was simply deafening. I’d recommend the $5 seats in the second balcony in the future for anyone who cares about their hearing.
The last choir to rehearse had a problem: the keyboard player was apparently caught in traffic, and could not make it to the dress rehearsal, despite repeated wireless cellular telephone calls by the director. Mr. LG miraculously restrained himself from any expression of frustration or sarcasm. Seriously. Talk about professionalism! Finally the choir had to go through the entire song with only the bass, drums and a slight degree of sound from a synthesizer, but whatever the accompaniment was, it was apparently not audible enough to the choir to keep them in tune. The resulting sound was either extremely creative, massively dissonant, or simply embarrassingly awful. Incidentally Geoff told me that during the concert – with the keyboardist in full battle gear – the choir sounded quite good. Regardless, they DID have a lot of energy!
Ok, so now the dress rehearsals are done and it’s time for LG to teach us about “Back to Eden.” The basic idea is that the “winning” choirs will be arrayed on the risers on the stage, and the rest of us “losers” (not!!) were to disperse around the aisles of the floor to help lip-synch the song, and do the required choreography, which was as follows:
- “Let’s get back” (right index finger pointing to the floor)
- “to Eden” (right index finger pointing straight up)
- “Live on top of the world” (successive moves of the right hand above the head from back to front, 3 times)
And later in the song, where the word “Live” is by itself:
- “Live” (both hands extended into the sky, similar to someone praising God)
- “Live on top of the world” (same successive moves as above, with the left hand gently lowered into standby position, awaiting the next lonely “Live”).
A side note here. Going back to earlier rehearsals in Boston when Chelsa was leading, when certain members would fail to follow directions, Chelsa would express dissatisfaction with an extended arm (usually left) and clenched fist. This gesture became part of our DNA by the time of the concert, and in addition to calling attention to a failed “motion,” it also provided some very humorous moments. After this “Back to Eden” rehearsal, we now had two great gestures to share with one another: the happy fist, and the hair-do threatening (except for me) “Live on top of the world” motions.
Ok, so we’re still in the auditorium, and next LG wants to rehearse the all-star choir that will sing back-up for the opening number in the program. We had selected six of our members as originally requested, but now they asked for five people from each choir to come up on stage to basically learn the choreography for the song. Chelsa, Jane, Kathy, Jacquie and Dawn were the chosen gesture-ers from our choir. LG proceeded to go through the routine, and it may just be me, but I thought it was an awful lot to learn in a few minutes! However before my hypothesis concerning the quick-study-ness of the all-stars could be confirmed, one of our HSTS-keepers appeared with the best possible words one could imagine: “time for dinner.”
So off we went, following our leader up and over and down and finally to a kind of concession area when hockey (NJ Devils) and basketball (NJ Nets) games are played, which was turned into a buffet for us hungry and tired choir members. Really quite good food, too: chicken (sorry, Thelma, not fried), roast beef, vegetable, potato, salad, and a piece a pie. And a roll. Soda. Coffee. No ice tea. It was great!
Then as suddenly as they had appeared to whisk us off to the dining area, the next words from HSTS: “You have to leave. Other choirs are coming now.” So we left. It was now around 5:45. Gail and a couple others left the building to go back and retrieve Mal from the Best Western, and I went out to the parking lot to retrieve a vest from the car: it was a bit cool in the Gray Room. We were told to be back to our room by 7:00pm, and then to be ready when called. We complied with their direction. They turned on the flat screen TV in our room that was tuned to the Prudential Center channel, and for the next hour the same PC promotional videos rotated around every ten minutes or so. 7:30 came and went: no change to the boring repeated stuff. 7:45, still nothing.
Finally, at just about 8pm, the actual show began. However, before we could see very much, the HSTS-keeper came and it was time for us to line up back stage, to get ready to go on. Choir 1 was ahead of us. So we dutifully followed our leader, and then got in our proper order to go on. After what seemed like a long time, with Cece and friends talking and singing, finally Choir 1 walked up to the top of the steps, and then they were announced, and on-stage they went. Did their song. Lots of enthusiasm from the audience. When the song was done, then the leader walked over to the judges on stage left, and each gave their opinion. Meanwhile, we were ushered to the top of the stairs, at the ready.
Then we were introduced. Off we went onto the risers, into our positions. Just like the dress rehearsal, except….this was IT!! One thing I was immediately aware of was the crowd size. I could see that not only the floor was pretty much filled, but the balconies also looked quite full as well. The crowd estimate was about 12,000. However, with the light on us, the crowd was really not all that visible.
So now our eyes are on Chelsa, and Geoff and Mike start the intro. Chelsa counts us up to the beginning of the swaying, and suddenly we’re singing, with the immediate lifting of our hands. On “Yes” Chelsa and all of our hands went down without a hitch. Back up on “lift”, down again on “yes”. Onto “clap our hands”. It felt good to me: I was comfortable, happy to be right there right then, even focusing a bit on the actual meaning of the words: “Yes, Lord, for the rest of our days”. Hmmm. Serious commitment.
Key change. “Sing our song”. Repeat. Then right into “Je-sus”. For the first time harmony. Everybody on time, in pitch. Then at the end of that section, Chelsa definitely lowers her arms we all follow suit, with the essentially a cappella “Hallelujah in the sanctuary.” You could sense the effect of the change on the audience: they responded audibly. Then, resuming the swaying and clapping with the individual parts doing the “Yes” section, the audience liked that as well. Somehow, we tenors really belted “Yes” out, in-tune. The audience loved it! And then the ending, the cessation of clapping and the slow lifting of our hands. Strong applause. It may just be me, but because the arrangement of the song was simple and uncomplicated, yet sung with conviction and excellence, the audience could really relate.
We had just witnessed with our lives and gifts to 12,000 people including some music professionals. We were saying I believe, “This is what Gospel music is really about: submission of our lives to the end of our days to the Lord Jesus Christ.” Whatever else happened on Wednesday night, whether the message in any other choir’s song got through, OURS DID! Because He enabled it from start (3 months ago) to finish (at around 8:20pm on Wednesday). The message could not have been more in-your-face and understandable.
After we filed off the risers, we waited in the wings, straining to hear the dialogue between the judges and Chelsa. More or less, they said the following:
- We were complimented us on our demographics (yes, we worked REAL HARD on that!), and added that it gave us a unique sound which they liked
- They complimented us on our courage in choosing a song that would be judged by the composer (Kurt Carr)
- They liked the sparseness of our accompaniment, which allowed the song itself to be heard
- The commented on the sincerity and conviction coming through in our performance
- They suggested that we could have added a little more sparkle to the arrangement; it was good as is, but could have been better with a little more pizzazz
I think we all felt essentially affirmed by the judge’s comments, and were elated that things had gone so well, both with the music and the choreography. And the audience reaction was an added conformation of the blessing of God on us.
Here is the song “In the Sanctuary” as sung by the Tremont Temple Gospel Choir on September 19, 2010:
https://thebereanwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2010-09-19-In-the-Sanctuary.mp4
After the judging, we were led back to our Gray Room by an HSTS keeper, where we stayed until we were called for the final number. We were able to watch some of the other choirs on the TV screen, although we were also into talking with each other about what had been happening.
At around 10pm, the HSTS-keeper came for us again, and it was back into the back stage area, but this time together with the other three “small” choirs, lined up in four parallel rows, all awaiting the announcement of the winners. Michael Chico was there to remind us what to do and especially how to act: “Don’t celebrate back-stage. Wait until you are on-stage.” Hmmm. This is definitely show-biz, and not a revival service.
It was slightly awkward to be there lined up two feet from members of the next choir, because there was simply not much of a spirit of meet-n-greet going on. It was more like tension. I tried a little conversation opener with the guy next to me, but a one-word response, followed by lack of further eye-contact said to me, “over and out.” Maybe others had a more comfortable interaction.
But finally the announcement of the winners was made, and indeed, it was one of the other choirs in our group of four that were the small-choir winners. Up on stage they went to receive their award. Similar for the other winners. A couple of comments: (1) they kept referring to this event as the “tri-state” competition. Hmmm. I think that meant NY, NJ and CT, and not MA! And (2), part of the selection of winners was to be made by people in the audience text-messaging their vote to a number displayed on the screens in the arena. Hmmmm. I wonder how many people from Tremont Temple or even MA were in the audience? Point being, winning the competition was going to be next to impossible for us, under those circumstances.
After the awards, we were directed to head out into the audience to participate in the “Back to Eden” finale, and I ended up about 20 rows deep into the audience. I think I did my choreography as well as the ones in front of me, and I’m sure with a great deal of enthusiasm as well. Yes indeed. Let’s all try it together. “Live on top of the world.” Got it? Again. Good. That’s right. Relax the wrist. Next time someone cuts you off on the expressway, give ‘em the old “top of the world” sign. It’ll totally transform the situation!
Well that was it for the show. We were still on the floor, and had to literally fight our way through the mob of adoring fans. No one asked me personally for an autograph, but I maintained a particularly modest expression; maybe they thought I was a volunteer usher or similar. One young man did address Jacquie and me; he said, “I voted for you guys.” I was quite touched by that, and I think he was saying that he affirmed our sincerity and excellence within the form that we expressed ourselves.
We finally made it back to the Gray Room, and were all quite elevated in mood – it had been a memorable day for sure, and we felt particularly blessed to be a part of it all. But it was also time to depart, and go our separate ways. We really didn’t want to leave right away, basking in the moment, but we especially had a 45-minute drive back to the AIM headquarters before we could get to bed.
I instructed the AIM people to wait at the Mulberry / Lafayette corner while I fetched the car across the street. Incidentally the police blocked Mulberry between Edison Place and Lafayette St, which was really beneficial for all the attendees streaming across the street to get to their cars. Anyway, once at the van, I became aware that getting out of the lot was going to take time. Everybody’s $20 parking ticket had to be processed through the machine on the way out! And further I was trapped because of the gridlock – couldn’t back into the stopped cars behind me, and blocked by the parked car ahead. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed. Then suddenly Geoff and Kathy appeared. They we able to become volunteer parking lot attendants and stop the traffic behind me to allow me to slip out of my space and at least get into one of the nearly stopped lines heading toward the exit.
Another ten minutes and I was out. Drove around the block, picked up my passengers, and off we headed toward Pearl River. After stopping for gas, it was up NJ21 for about 20 minutes, but then… where’s the exit to the GSP?? Couldn’t find it in the dark. Passed I-80 exit and US46 exit, and now on NJ20. Oh no, we lost a digit on our route! After several miles of no GSP sign I pulled off a U-turn and retraced our path south, this time following US46 east and praying for a GSP North entrance. And YES!! There it was. Thank you Lord!! Ok. Now north on the GSP to exit 172, get off onto Grand Av, left onto Spring Valley Rd, looking for Washington St. Where is it? It’s now about 12:45am. The further north I go on Spring Valley the less familiar it all looks – in the dark of course. Finally, we pass an entrance to I-287/I-87. Then the thought occurs: why not head east on I-287 to the exit we took earlier today (well, yesterday), and approach AIM from the east? I did, and it worked!! We arrived at 1:00am, slipped quietly into our rooms, and proceeded to sleep until morning.
Breakfast at 8am, and several of us appeared. There were only a few other people in the dining room, but one was a young woman whom we began to converse with. It turns out that she and her husband were heading out later in the day to the mission field – to an island off the coast of East Africa, to an un-reached people-group, 99.9% Muslim. A bit later, her husband joined us, and we had a fascinating conversation. How did you meet? Why AIM? Why this particular group of people? Etc. Etc. They had bought about 40 books for their Kindle reader, and the day before the husband had crunched it while packing. Fortunately he would be able to download Kindle for PC, so he would be ok. He was still a bit bummed out by the mishap. Point being, because of technology, some things have changed for missionaries from the old days. Satellite phone, the internet, and so on, including eBooks and Kindle.
By this time the rest of our group had appeared, and they we sitting at a second table with another missionary – a nurse – was also heading out later in the day. In this case, her father was there to see her off. I don’t remember which country she was headed to, but I believe both sets of missionaries were first travelling to Kenya for some field training, before being dispatched to their actual target locations.
The AIM people all left to get ready to attend a series of prayer meetings that are held daily at 9am, and the seven of us sat around and talked about everything that had taken place, not only yesterday, but this morning. One of the AIM staff people came by and asked if we would like to take a tour of the facility, and we agreed. It would begin at 9:30, so we decided to get packed and be ready to leave for home once the tour was complete.
At 9:30, an AIM staff person took us to the various offices: business, short-term coordinators, full-time coordinators, computer office, public relations, financial receipts – basically the whole operation. The corridors were lined with pictures of people and scenes in Africa. One thing that especially impressed me was when one of the full-time coordinators brought out a map of Africa, showing which countries AIM was working in. He noted that there was no shaded countries in North Africa, but told us that they had missionaries in “two of the countries.” Not on the map, and he did not disclose which countries. Secrecy. The Muslim effect. I noted that they did shade southern Sudan, but he said that there’s an election coming up, and they are preparing to withdraw their people, because of the potential danger associated with a change in government. Taking risks for Christ!
Well after the tour, we loaded the van, said our good-byes, and headed for home. We took the scenic route back I-287 to I-684 up to Danbury, and then I-84 through Hartford to the Masspike. As we were nearing Hartford, Thelma uttered the words we were all waiting for, “Are we going to stop for lunch?” Indeed we did, at a Boston Market in Manchester, although admittedly Dawn and Jacquie strayed over to Papa Gino’s for a slice or two, while the rest of us dealt with picking off the white meat from the ¼ chicken breasts. And talking about the amazing events in Newark and Pearl River that we had been blessed to be a part of.