How do you make a youth choir thrive? Role models, responsibility,  contemporary music, and a chance to make a difference. Those are the keys. Find out how S.O.L.O. helped Jubilation Choir in our current "Spotlight"

Demos

Listen to samples of various projects done at S.O.L.O. (MP3)

Read about what you're hearing

Margaret Davis directs the Jubilation youth choir at First Baptist Church, Merritt Island Florida. Under Margaret’s direction over the last four years, Jubilation has become a vital part of First Baptist’s music program, and has more than doubled in size. Leon interviewed Margaret on June 1^st, 2000, at the S.O.L.O. Productions studio.

Leon: How did you come to be in your present position?

Margaret: The lady who had taken the position was expecting a child, and they (Jubilation) normally go on a big trip every summer. She needed to leave about six weeks before the tour started. I have a background [in teaching]. I taught high school choral music in the area, so I stepped in and took over the program.

L: What is Jubilation’s function in the music ministry of First Baptist?

M: When I first took the group, Jubilation student choir was there in the church, but not many people knew about it. They didn’t get a lot of chances to sing in the services. As its evolved, especially this year, we sing, not at every Sunday service, but we sing in the evening, we sing in the morning service usually once a quarter, but mostly what we try to do is sing out in the community. Jubilation is for junior high, high school, and early college students, so it stretches across a big range of kids.

L: What types of places do you sing at in the community?

M: On the 16^th of this month we’re going to Disney. We have sung a couple of times at other area churches where they’ve asked us to come. We do most of our singing when we go on tour. This will be the fourth tour that I’ve been on. We’ve been to Toronto, Canada. The second one was out to California, the San Francisco area. Last year we went back to Toronto. This year we’re going to New York, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. We sing outside a lot. Sometimes we sing in churches, but we try to stay out of churches because that’s not where we’re going to reach people. We try to go out into the communities and let them see us. We’ve sung in malls, including the mall here on Merritt Island, and places where we won’t have the typical church audience.

L: Do you bring our own sound system? Do you have a sound crew?

M: We bring our own sound system. I have a group of people who work with me. We have a man who does all of our sound, and plays our backup tapes, sets up all the mics. This year we were able to purchase our own sound system. Before, we had kind of just gathered together the different pieces we had from the church. But we realized we needed to have a sound system, we got permission to get it, and so we have our own system that we can take anywhere we want. Our own mixer, our own mics. That way, we know it’s taken care of.

L: How has the group changed since you started directing it about four years ago?

M: It has grown tremendously in size. Four years ago there were 53 students that actually went on tour. This year we have about 140 students active every Sunday, and 122 that are going on the trip this summer. We’ve become more selective in the music we do. We try to do things that are current, that the kids hear on the radio. I think that’s what has drawn the kids...the fact that they are singing the music that they like to listen to.

L: They used to do more traditional church youth choir music?

M: I don’t know all of what they did before. I don’t think they did youth musicals, but parts of them. They’d listen to a musical, and choose one or two songs that they liked, but they wouldn’t be songs that anyone in the group had ever known.

L: As you know, there’s a whole body of work out there written specifically for youth choirs, but you’re not really using much of it. Would you then attribute the growth of the group partly to your current music choices?

M: They like the music, that’s a big part of it. Also, we have several couples that commit to work with the choir from the beginning of the year all the way to the end. We call them sponsors, and we like to have couples, because many of the kids don’t have a father figure, they don’t have a mother figure. Many of them are in single parent homes, and we like them to see working couples. I think the kids like stability. We have a lot of rules, and whether or not they want to admit it, they like that! We make them toe the line, and do what we ask them to do. They have to show good behavior, be a good witness. We’re strict with them. I come from a school background, and I don’t want to be a “schoolteacher,” but I do a lot of the same stuff. Jubilation is not just a “come on Sunday, let’s throw something together, sing at church next Sunday” group. We knuckle down, we practice, and we have a high standard. I always tell the students, “We are not going to settle for mediocrity. It’s going to be right, or we don’t do it.” I think they like being pushed and encouraged like that. Word travels among them, and they really came out this year.

L: They’re going out and inviting their friends to join the group?

M: I think so. We probably have about 18 or 19 students in the group that have nothing else to do with our church. Some come from other churches, some are not involved in church at all, other than Jubilation. We can have people in the group that are not necessarily members of the church.

L: I think the kids are also drawn to the group because they see it as something important and worthwhile.

M: They are. They know that they get to perform and minister, and it brings them out.

L: How much influence do the members of Jubilation have in choosing the material you do?

M: Their influence is imperative. I don’t always listen to Christian radio like some of them do, so I always tell them, “If you hear a good song on the radio that you like, and it sounds like something we could do, let me know what it is.” Then when they tell me, I go search for it. They give me the titles, and then I find it and listen to it. I look for a song with lasting power. I want to be able to rehearse it for more than a couple of weeks without the kids getting bored. If it’s something we can rehearse for several weeks, and keep it for months in our repertoire, its good.

L: What would you say that you and the group look for in a song?

M: They like upbeat music that has a driving rhythm. They like songs with words that a listener (from outside the church) would understand.

L: Something that they wouldn’t be embarrassed to sing in front of their peers!

M: That’s right!

L: What is Jubilation’s future plan?

M: Right now it’s hard to tell, because our church has been without a minister of music for about of year. They have been interviewing someone. I’ve been told that Jubilation will stay as it is, but I don’t know what kind of changes a new minister of music might bring in. I know they’re looking for someone who does some contemporary things, so I think he’ll like Jubilation, since that’s what we do. We’re trying to decide whether to keep everyone together, or split and have a junior high and senior high / college choir. There are times when we think we need to split it because it is getting big and logistics are getting hard, but there are other times when we don’t want to split. We’ve asked some of the older ones what they think, and most of them like having the younger ones around! We’re not really sure what direction the fall is going to take us. We’re waiting to talk to the new minister of music and find out what’s going to happen.

L: Does the group primarily perform with backing tracks, or do you put a live band together?

M: We have used tracks predominantly. We did one piece this year that was not typical for them, it was slower: “Be Still and Know” by Steven Curtis Chapman. We did that with just piano and guitar. I would like to use live instruments; the problem was that we didn’t have students who could do it. But I do have several this year that have come in. [They play] drums, guitar, bass, so maybe we could this year. That would be something new for us to do.

L: It’s time for the shameless self-promotion! Would you describe what S.O.L.O. Productions has done for you?

M: When I hear a song that I like that the students have brought to me, I will call you and say, “I would like you to arrange this for the choir.” I always ask you not to make it too hard, since I only meet with them once a week, but don’t make it super easy either, because when you have as many students as I do, they should be able to do four parts easily. We’ve been able to take the songs that we’ve found and have them turned into choir arrangements. That’s how we’ve mostly existed since I’ve taken over the group, through your arrangements.

L: It sounds as though the church has been really blessed by the ministry of Jubilation, as have the kids. I remember when I was at First Baptist and was working with the group. Those were some of the most fun times I had there.

M: They’re a lot of fun. They keep you going!