Gospel Choir director preaches the power of living through song
Jessica Bidgood
Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Features
It is Friday afternoon, and most of Tufts University is in a collective state of lazy content. In the Distler Performance Hall, however, something is just getting started. A crowd of students, representing a diverse cross section of Tufts, are gathering excitedly.
As the students find their seats and their chatter grows, a few piano notes rise above the din. The notes strengthen and form a tune, and a voice raises above all others. It is a man's voice, a voice of extensive range: loud, clear and simple. Lecturer of Music David Coleman is singing, and, not three lines into his song, all 170 students have fallen silent.
They listen as he sings and plays, sending gospel praises into the hall's soft echoes. He finishes to a hearty round of applause and, shrugging, says, "I just felt like singing."
As the lecturer teaching "Music 64: Gospel Choir," Coleman encourages nearly 200 students of all talent levels to feel like singing too and to act upon that urge as a part of Tufts' Third Day Gospel Choir.
Each Friday, Coleman offers his students a chance to sway and sing, all part of a holistic cultural experience that teaches them about gospel music through the history and the prayer that inspired it.
Coleman was born in Memphis, Tenn. He played piano from a young age, which won him a scholarship to a music camp affiliated with Boston University when he was 15. It was there that Coleman realized that he wanted music to be his career, leading him to attend the BU music program, where he graduated with degrees in both composition and piano.
Upon graduation, Coleman had a number of "odd jobs" that included piano performance, directing the BU Gospel Choir and directing his church choral. Choral direction appealed to Coleman not only for its perks - he notes health benefits and full-time pay as bonuses - but for the experience too.
"I really did want to be a teacher," he said. "Seeing firsthand the lack of arts in schools made me want to teach."
As the students find their seats and their chatter grows, a few piano notes rise above the din. The notes strengthen and form a tune, and a voice raises above all others. It is a man's voice, a voice of extensive range: loud, clear and simple. Lecturer of Music David Coleman is singing, and, not three lines into his song, all 170 students have fallen silent.
They listen as he sings and plays, sending gospel praises into the hall's soft echoes. He finishes to a hearty round of applause and, shrugging, says, "I just felt like singing."
As the lecturer teaching "Music 64: Gospel Choir," Coleman encourages nearly 200 students of all talent levels to feel like singing too and to act upon that urge as a part of Tufts' Third Day Gospel Choir.
Each Friday, Coleman offers his students a chance to sway and sing, all part of a holistic cultural experience that teaches them about gospel music through the history and the prayer that inspired it.
Coleman was born in Memphis, Tenn. He played piano from a young age, which won him a scholarship to a music camp affiliated with Boston University when he was 15. It was there that Coleman realized that he wanted music to be his career, leading him to attend the BU music program, where he graduated with degrees in both composition and piano.
Upon graduation, Coleman had a number of "odd jobs" that included piano performance, directing the BU Gospel Choir and directing his church choral. Choral direction appealed to Coleman not only for its perks - he notes health benefits and full-time pay as bonuses - but for the experience too.
"I really did want to be a teacher," he said. "Seeing firsthand the lack of arts in schools made me want to teach."
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