wfn.org | Presbyterians Wowed by Cow Town Choral Celebration

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99085 
24-June-1999 
 
        Presbyterians Wowed by Cow Town Choral Celebration 
 
FORT WORTH    Those participating in the 211th General Assembly took time 
out Tuesday night from debating business to enjoy a musical extravaganza 
that celebrated the Assembly  Texas-style. 
     After all, that's the way John Calvin himself would have wanted it. 
Rumor has it that the father of Presbyterianism held a yearly musical gala 
to lure people into the faith, according to David H. Wasserman, executive 
general presbyter of Grace Presbytery, the hosting body of this year's 
Assembly. 
     But planners of the two-hour performance, "From Cow Town to Wow Town," 
wanted something different than showgoers in Geneva would have viewed. 
There were at least four choirs, some Presbyterian affiliated; concert 
pianists, a mariachi band and other performers belting out gospel, western 
and Hispanic music.  There was even a Mexican hat dance. 
     "We wanted it to be indigenous of our cultural heritage in Texas," 
said Carol Adcock, co- chairperson of local arrangements for the Committee 
On Local Arraignments (COLA), which sponsored the event.  "We knew that it 
was going to be phenomenal. But it exceeded our expectations." 
     The event was held at the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance 
Hall, the newest crown jewel in a city which already boasts one of the 
nation's largest cultural districts.  The mostly filled 2,056 seat, 
multipurpose hall is characteristic of the classic European opera house 
form, with an 80-foot diameter Great Dome topping the Founders Concert 
Theater and 48-foot tall angels sculpted from Texas limestone, gracing the 
Grand Facade.  
 
     There are six seating levels in the audience chamber arranged in 
successive horseshoe- shaped tiers, including two piano boxes, which exist 
in no other performance space in the world.  There weren't too many seats 
left in any of the galleries. 
     "We reprinted tickets," Adcock said. "There were not too many empty 
seats in the house." 
     After a stirring rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" brought the 
crowd to its feet as they sang the anthem together, members of the Fort 
Worth-based Texas Boys Choir strutted onto stage dressed in blue jeans, 
boots and cowboy hats. They performed "Home on the Range," "Happy Trails to 
You," and "Ghost Riders in the Sky," among others.   
     Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Festival Chorus, comprised of singers from 
the Dallas/Fort Worth area, performed "We are the Voice of America," and 
the Binnerri Presbyterian Church Choir, a Korean congregation from Dallas, 
representing Texas' growing Asian population, sang "We Came From the East." 
     Other groups joining the performance were: the Anita N. Martinez 
Ballett Folklorico, a 24-year-old dance organization from Dallas; the Fort 
Worth Gospel Choir; the Dorothy Shaw Bell Choir and the Mariachi Marin 
Gonzalex Los Rayos de Guanajuato, an eight-member Dallas- based mariachi 
band. 
 
Evan Silverstein 

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