The Liberating Power of the Campbell Hall Gospel Choir

If you haven’t had the opportunity to attend the gospel concert or watch the livestream, you will no doubt want to click here to enjoy an exhilarating experience. If you have seen it, you know what I’m talking about! The life-affirming joy that radiates from this concert, alongside sheer musical excellence, rivals any concert on the planet. 

 

Explanations for the event’s power vary. For those more familiar with the gospel idiom, the explanation is simple: the music is irresistible, even to those of non-Christian faiths and anyone with an open heart. As the number of Campbell Hall families familiar with this tradition has grown, so has the power of the performance, attracting other CH students who are less familiar but willing to learn (and move their feet!) into the magic of the music. 

 

This being Hollywood, others will argue that it’s the beautifully orchestrated performance that appeals to the audience. With the backing of a professional band, the melding of more than 220 student voices (the largest choir in the school’s history), and the high production values, the result is simply compelling. Our L.A. kids know a good performance opportunity when they see it! 

 

But the central factor in the choir’s success, and the reason that success is so hard to replicate at other schools, is the way that Campbell Hall’s culture and mission contextualize the gospel choir experience for the students involved. On a basic level, going regularly to chapel with peers of many different faiths and identities helps our students open their hearts to the idea that love is all around them, whether religiously based or not. The gospel choir is just another way to express these deeply moving feelings.

 

On a more philosophical level, something unique and remarkable happens at Campbell Hall that elevates students’ experience in the choir and beyond. Throughout their years here, students hear about and dip their toes into what we call contemplative or spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, walking a labyrinth, journaling, and so on. Though they probably wouldn’t use this language, in the concert they are invited to “experienc[e] a sense of communion with sacred reality”^[1] that is among the most profound experiences many of them have ever had. Having the experience does not require a particular belief system (i.e. Christianity), only enough trust in the people and process to relax into full participation.

 

If you invite them to share their experience of participating in the choir, our students mostly talk about community, family, and having fun. Some seem inclined to turn the concert's end into a mosh pit experience, reverting to a more familiar frame of reference as they express their joy in a celebratory group dance. Our culture gives young people limited possibilities for experiencing and contextualizing exuberant, loving communion: join a church, temple, or mosque; find an artistic passion, spiritual practice, or athletic pursuit in which you can lose yourself; or just give up and just fight dog-eat-dog on the materialistic battlefield. At Campbell Hall, we learn that participating in certain kinds of ritual, teamwork, music, and art can “liberate us from disenchantment; from dehumanization; from the narrow aims of practicality; from the strict verifications of science and math; and from the numbing routine of living in a readymade world.”^[2] All of our arts and athletic programs at Campbell Hall offer that liberating lens, and the gospel choir is a preeminent example. 

 

It may seem odd, a kind of boutique privilege, to be focusing on the power of the gospel choir while, as a parent said to me recently, “the world is on fire.” I disagree. Only faith, broadly defined, enriched by lived experiences of love, communion, and joy, intelligently supported with critical thinking, will carry us through this moment.