The large hall at Hendricks Chapel on Wednesday remained unoccupied and calm as 10 students broke the stillness.

As they hopped up on the stage and linked their arms in a circle, their chatter died away and a lone voice began a prayer. Within seconds, everyone joined in and the 10 students formed one unified voice echoing around the chapel, singing the words to “I Will Bless the Lord.”

The symphony of voices was the only sound in the chapel for a few minutes – voices of members of the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble. As they finished praying, Benjamin Rodriguez, business manager for BCCE and a junior selected studies in education and sociology dual major, dived into a pep talk for the rehearsal.

“We’re about a week away. It’s exciting,” he said as giggles broke out. BCCE is gearing up for a big year — its 40th.

The BCCE annually hosts a two-day long celebration for its anniversaries, with a dinner banquet the first night — hosted at the Crowne Plaza Syracuse hotel this Friday — and a concert the next.  Hendricks Chapel will house the concert Saturday.

Rodriguez expects 100 alumni will join the celebrations this year.

“The concert is going to be a mix of our current members singing our own selections, us with alumni and alumni with their own selections,” he said. “So it’s going to be like a huge extravaganza of the different years. And that’s what we’re trying to showcase: how far we have come.”

Since the group first formed on the Syracuse University campus in 1977, so many people found their passion and place in the BCCE that alumni have their own group called the Tag. Rodriguez said some alumni are always available to give the current BCCE generation any help they need.

Getting in is not exclusive. Rodriguez said that even though it is named the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble and it is a Christian gospel group, everyone is welcome. The group has members who are Jewish and members who are not black.

To further promote its openness, the BCCE holds open rehearsals every semester, where interested students can come and observe a rehearsal one day and come prepared with their own favorites a few days later for an audition.

While the BCCE is certainly active rehearsing for and planning their big spring event, it has gone through its own changes over the decades as the world around it changed. Numbers dipped from 45 in Rodriguez’s first year as a freshman to about 20 now.

“We’ve noticed that the campus population has transitioned, there’s not a lot of people of color,” he said. “Even in the world, religion has been transitioning — conservative Christian gospel isn’t huge for younger generation anymore.”

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But small numbers didn’t diminish BCCE — it consolidated it, making it more close-knit than ever. The members consider each other family. Deresha Hayles, a sophomore African American studies major and current co-hospitality chair for the BCCE, said she hasn’t looked back since she joined her first semester as a freshman.

“I was in a gospel choir in high school, and the significance it had on my time in high school, I can never ever forget,” she said. “I wanted something like that, I wanted something that I resonated with and belonged in.”

Hayles is looking forward to meeting the alumni heading to campus next weekend.

“The little token nuggets of knowledge they are ever so willing to share have really enriched my time,” she said. “You know, things they can enlighten us with and share their memories.”

Finding a support system has been the case for many BCCE members, but for some, like Diane Portugal, the group elevates them to the next level.

The freshman physics major came to Syracuse just this semester and has already found more than her people.

“Gospel has reaffirmed my faith,” Portugal said. “I felt like I was losing touch with that, but this choir has definitely helped me get closer with God.”

As she talked, she moved along to the music on the stage and the others clapped and tapped their feet in tune with the songs. It’s something they’re trying to incorporate, Portugal said, aside from getting the notes, pronunciation and rhythms right.

“We’re also trying to tie in some movement and get audience involved as well,” she said. “Our goal is to spread joy and love of God. So we do with that movements and expressions.”

Just letting their voices soar is taxing. Rodriguez said a normal practice session saw about three to four songs, of four to five minutes each. He lost his voice when he first joined the group his freshman year.

Now that its concert is nearing, BCCE is polishing its whole repertoire.

Even though the BCCE adds instruments and bands to complement its music, its members’ voices haven’t become secondary.

“A lot of the time we practice with just our voices, which is like our foundation,” Ericka Jones-Craven, a junior art photography and religion double major, said. “We were founded in 1977 and they started with just their voices, so that’s something that’s carried on for the years.”

Like Hayles, Jones-Craven grew up with gospel music in a church, and much like the others, she also found a safe space where she has others to rely on and pray for her.

The BCCE is big on that feeling of inclusivity and providing a space to people who want to express their passion.

“We’re completely open,” Rodriguez said. ”Although we’re a Christian-based organization, we’re definitely open to have anyone who’s willing to learn and be a part of this experience. We’re proud of our diversity and inclusiveness.”

The drop-in members this year took the group through some rough tides, but Rodriguez said they are looking forward to giving their guests this weekend a good time.

“We want people to be uplifted,” he said. “We hope that the alumni are proud of us. We went through a lot this year, but hopefully this concert is the icing on the cake.”

As they finished singing, Rodriguez once again discussed the coming celebration, and the time commitments each member had to make.

“It’s going to be a long day,” he warned. “But it’s going to be—”

“Lit,” someone in the circle chimed in to a chorus of laughs.

“Lit,” Rodriguez agreed.

Published on April 16, 2017 at 10:31 pm

Contact: dmurthy@syr.edu