The Redland Singers was a short-lived para-church chorale. In other words, they were "people without a steeple." Most sacred chorales must be under the auspices of a church if they are to survive and the reasons are many: one cannot overstate the importance of having a church home in which many facilitating activities take place; these activities act to bring everyone together. The coalescing influence of the church is immense. Most singers in a choir also make the church their center for social interaction and their home away from home. The church then is a clubhouse and a rehearsal hall for the chorale, as well as a spiritual retreat and worship center.
Then there's the church suppers that draw the faithful together and feed them of a Wed. or Thurs. night handily right before choir practice. Whoever thought up the idea of the pre-rehearsal supper is almost as responsible for the resultant good music as are the singers themselves. His or her name will be revealed in heaven, during the really big meal, right before mass choir practice.
The church moves in many indispensable ways to undergird the choir ministry. There is of course, the financial support, and the use of church facilities for rehearsals and concerts. There is, foremost, the stabilizing spiritual influence that the church provides. Sans all of that support: fellowship, common cause, financial backing, the use of the physical plant, and related activities, a chorale that is adrift outside the church is treading a rough terrain.
The Redland Singers were only in existence for 2 years, but in that brief time, it provided a valuable stepping stone for Michael Roy, Jan, and Diane. This is equally true for all the singers who came out of the RCC ministry after the choir, as they knew it, and the concert series ended. First, the para-church chorale gave them an opportunity to be involved on the same level of choral excellence that had gone on for 11 years at RCC. Going musical cold-turkey after all of those tremendous years would have been disheartening, and this chorale acted to tide them over until they could once again find high callings. It was an oasis in what could have been a musical and personal desert in their lives and helped to fill the gap with music, fellowship, and spiritual support until the Lord's time arrived to show them a new way.
The singers that came out of RCC and sojourned with the Redland Singers were not meant to stay together forever. Demographics, geographics, and personal preferences would have the eventual effect of dispersing them to their respective destinies. One problem was mean distance: Michael Roy, Jan and Diane eventually accepted music positions at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, which was some 25 miles north of the Redlands area. Many of the previous RCC singers lived even farther south than that, in Homestead, FL. Therefore, it was never practical nor anticipated that they would end up in the same church together. There were too many miles and homely influences in the way of any mutual ministry.
However, the Redland Singers providentially caused several great things to happen: it was in this chorale that the music team met Beverley Murdock, who was accompanist at Immanuel Presbyterian. Through her considerable influences and recommendations (along with interim choir director, Claudia Springer), MR, Jan and Diane came to Immanuel in 2003. This was mere months after the Redland Singers, having served its interim purposes, had been retired.
The team also met Ted Grab in the new chorale, and he served as a professional guest bass-baritone in all of the Immanuel concerts. Since he was a church organist himself, he was otherwise employed of a Sunday morning, but became a valuable asset in the concertizing. Also, Holly Jarrell, music teacher at Jan's school, came to sing with us: another trained musician. Holly remains the only singer to be an invited guest in both the RCC and the Immanuel concerts.
Furthermore, many of the deep south denizens, who were a part of the RCC years, also came to join the music team they knew well at Immanuel for the special concerts, among them: Katie Burdick, Adelaide Gonzalez, Peggy Hunt, her sister, Patty Pluto, Frank Busch, and baritone soloist, Lou Rose. In addition, John Flynt, their longtime tenor soloist at RCC since 1992, also was there. It was the best of both worlds colliding in the Immanuel concerts: the superb in-residence choir, with Beverley and Claudia anchoring the sopranos, along with many of the finest guest singers from RCC. This was one of the reasons that Immanuel became, in four short years, a well-known center of the choral arts in South Florida.
Consider this blast of divinely inspired irony: the church Jan and MR served in just prior to going down to the Redlands in 1990, one W. Kendall Presbyterian, had a good choir that numerically represented half of the congregation by volume: about 15. The church was a new plant, supported jointly by the Miami area presbytery. It was planted in 1987 and continued for three years before closing its doors for good on the last day of 1989. One of the members of that W. Kendall choir, baritone Art Miles, said a goodbye to Michael and Jan at that final service. One month later, MR and Jan were ensconced at RCC. 11 years passed and the RCC days came to an end. Three more years went by: the Redland Singers era. When MR, Jan, and now Diane, came to Immanuel Presbyterian in 2003, almost 14 years after Art had bid them goodbye, there was Art in MR's choir again. God works in mysterious ways, especially over on the choir risers.
The Redland Singers were invited to join the Greater Miami Symphonic Band for a number of concerts. The collaboration of a symphonic band and a chorale is a provocative and quite successful idea. A symphonic band differs from a symphony
orchestra in that the band has no string sections. Instead, woodwinds, including saxophones, are added in place of strings, and typically, the band has a larger and more varied brass section. This July 4th, 2001, concert had the chorale assisting the band with patriotic-themed music. The chorale could be viewed as additional section of the band, but one that sang its notes instead of playing them. Singing to an 80-piece band accompaniment is, however, logistically and acoustically challenging. Strategic sound reinforcement is essential.
Little-Known Esoteric Fact: The Greater Miami Symphonic Band was founded in 1979. This was three years before Jan and MR were married (but they were always destined!). The two sweethearts joined the newly created band that year, with Jan playing trumpet, which she had played all through prep school and college. Michael's first expectation was that he would play flute, which was his best "band" instrument. The band, alas, was overrun with flutes. They did not, however, have any baritone sax, so MR played bari-sax the founding year in the GMSB. 22 years later he rejoined the band, but this time bringing not a huge hunk-of-plumbing sax, but a professional chorale. Time is a circle.
Hear audio files of the Greater Miami Symphonic Band and the Redland Singers performing together. Also see photos.
MR says: The City of Homestead engaged the Singers for a special Fourth of July event in dilapilated Homestead Baseball Stadium, which disproved the adage that "if you build it, they will come." They built it and nobody came, mainly because they
built it two feet below sea level on the flood plains at the tip of a peninsula sticking out into that tropical rain basin called the Caribbean Sea. With every good downpour (and we get plenty of 'em down here) the dugouts filled with 6 feet of water. There are no audio files to this weird event, but there are some captioned photos. By the way, the City of Homestead still owes us 500 bucks for the gig. We'd take possession of the stadium, but then they'd owe us $1000.
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