When the audience gathers at Grace United Methodist Church for the annual Spring concert of the Community Concert Choir of Baltimore (CCCB), they will hear the music of the church sung by more than 150 singers, along with exquisite musicians and directors.
But they will also be part of a grander project to provide dollars for youth programs and students who might otherwise not be able to attend college.
With the help of The Big Sisters Club of Baltimore and the Alpha Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., the choir offers major support to as many young people as possible, more than 100 over its 14 years of existence.
“I’m honored as director of the choir to celebrate the rich music of the African-American church tradition and to raise funds to uplift students across the community,” says Dr. Marco K. Merrick, CCCB’s founding director.
“It’s also an honor to have these wonderful organizations partner in this signature concert while also enabling positive educational opportunities for our students,” he says.
Merrick has been a music influencer in the Baltimore region for more than 40 years, beginning his career with piano lessons at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He is also a founding member of the Choir Directors and Organists Guild of the Hampton Ministers Conference and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the nation’s oldest music fraternity.
Merrick is also a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., past president of Delta Lambda Chapter, and member of the Alpha Chorale and National Chorus.
Merrick says the choir has helped Alpha Phi Alpha’s Delta Lambda Chapter raise more than half a million dollars for scholarships and even paid full tuition for the past eight years for a student to attend the Carter School of Music in Baltimore.
This upcoming concert on May 26, entitled “I Believe,” will be accompanied by organist W. Patrick Alston and pianist Marcus Smith, both music faculty members of Baltimore City College High School and church music directors. As usual, the musical offerings trace the arc of Black history and culture: classical compositions, Negro spirituals, hymns, and gospel songs.
Since its founding in 2010, the choir has grown to almost 200 members who have packed venues around the Baltimore area, in Washington, D.C., and even overseas — most recently in Rome. They have four concerts a year, and each usually has standing room only.
They’re not just performers, though. Merrick always talks about preserving the music that has been the soundtrack for African American history and “teaching it to the young people so they will cherish it also.”
As the choir’s website notes, “The African-American church tradition cultivated a broad spectrum of music, shaping our American history and fostering faith through our ancestors’ songs. They survived the horrific middle passage of the slave trade and stamped their inimitable legacy in the souls of successive generations.”
“Spirituals inspire each era, spanning slavery, American Revolution, Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Movement and the modern day, crafting musical development around the world.”