"Where Did It All Come

From" was the name of a workshop and concert presented at Flat Rock

African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The walls reverberated with

the sounds of drums, pianos and voices covering 200 years of music in

the black church.

A workshop was open during

the day to the public with those participating tracing the history of

black music. The workshop choir that evening consisted of various denominations

singing songs with narration by visiting minister, the Rev. Michael W.

Baldwin. He is pastor at the Christians For Change Church in Riverdale.

Workshop coordinator and vocalist

Carrietta Belle Butts is a native of Tuscaloosa Alabama and was reared

in Milwaukee. She was a voice student at the Hartford Conservatory in

Connecticut under the direction of Professor Chai-Lun Yueh and is now

studying under the direction of Professor Marlysa Brooks at the Georgia

State School of Music.

One of the pianists, James

Darren Fryar, is a musician at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Newark,

N. J. He studied at the Newark School of the Performing Arts, where he

continued studies in piano and organ.

Butts wrote in the program

that while the composers of the spirituals of the early and mid-19th century

are unknown, those spirituals became the gospel music of the turn of the

20th century.

Many African-American spirituals

found their way into many of our hymnals, including: "Go Tell It

On The Mountain", "Were You There?", "He's Got The

Whole World In His Hands" and "Lord, I Want To Be A Christian."

Other guest musicians include

Selima Harleston, a freshman at Spelman College where she is studying

music with a focus on vocal performance and concentration in composition

and theory, and Rico Harris of Jonesboro, who has been playing drums for

20 years.

Flat Rock youth minister of

music Kim Richardson also played piano and Leslie Dempsey, who sang in

the workshop choir as well as in the trio, is the church minister of music.