We Have Seen His Star December 19, 2010

The theme of Oakland Bay Area Community Chorus' (OBACC) Christmas Concert, "We Have Seen His Star" is "Enriching the Lives of Others Through Music." Featured on the program will be stirring renditions of such seldom heard Christmas Spirituals as: "Mary, Mary Where is Your Baby" written by Jester Hariston; "Rise Up Shepherd and Follow" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain," both arranged by Director, William Bell. The program will also include Gospel and traditional Christmas music.

OBACC is a 50 voice, multicultural concert choir. It had its origin at Downs United Methodist Church as a combined choir and later expancded into the Bay Area community to become a state and federal non-profilt organization. This inspiring Holiday program is one facet of their mission of keeping the African American Spiritual alive. The African American Spiritual has been called America's only true folk music in that often, no individual composer or poet was responsible for their creation. They are unique and powerful because they represent a priceless legacy of the trials, tribulations and eventual triumphs of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Spirituals served both as church music and as a method of communication within the slave community.

The refinement of the spiritual to classical status in American music is largely owed to the choral groups of the Black colleges which were established after the Civil war. Fisk Jubilee Singers were the first to refine the music which is sung a cappella.

William (Bill) Bell, founder and director of OBACC, is well known in the Bay Area as the "Jazz Professor" for his academic career at the College of Alameda, U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University and for his jazz piano performances, and choral conducting. Lonni Williams, assistnat director of the chorus, is known throughout the Bay Area and Europe for her contributions to Gospel music as a singer, pianist and workshop leader. Terri Simmons is the pianist/organist for the chorus.

Official Website: http://brownpapertickets.com