This weekend Oakland will host an awe inspiring tribute to Martin Luther King called In The Name of Love. Saturday night the Paramount Theater will fill with the music of Grammy Award winner Jennifer Holliday, Tuck and Patti, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and the Oakland Children’s Community Choir.
This is the 11th annual tribute hosted by Living Jazz to bring Martin Luther King’s dream of harmonic diversity to reality. Along with the star studded line up, the Oakland Children’s Community Choir (OCCC) has been preparing for the event with much anticipation. Stacey Hoffman created the Oakland Children's Community in 2005 to help fill the gap in music education in Oakland elementary schools. “As music education has been taken out of the curriculum in California schools, Living Jazz has felt that it is important to help to try and fill this void by providing music classes completely free of charge to the school. The purpose of the choir was to provide an accessible music fundamental program for grade schoolers during the regular school day (not before or after school) so that all children had the chance to participate. OCCC encompasses 1-hour weekly music classes over a 4 month period, culminating in a high profile performance.
I originally hired Michelle Jordan as the Music Director for the program, along with accompanist Ben Heveroh. During the first 2 years of the program, we worked in 3 different schools with 4th, and 5th graders. In 2007, I hired Melanie DeMore, a previous member of the Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir and an experienced vocalists, educator and composer to replace Michelle Jordan.
Melanie has been at the helm as Music Director since that time. We are now serving over 290 1st-4th graders in Cleveland and Glenview elementary schools. The OCCC is the opening act at the annual MLK Tribute each year, which is an extremely exciting and memorable experience for the children as well as the audience.”
Melanie describes the preparation for “In The Name of Love”:
We have from 250 -300 kids. I have to prepare them enough to feel comfortable singing in a group. On the very first day, they learn to sing a warm up song, so that they feel comfortable singing together, forming a community of singers. That’s really important that they know from the very beginning they are part of this amazing community, making music together …
Every year, we have a theme. This year’s theme: is “a simple thing”.
I asked the kids, “In order to make a change in the world, do you have to have a lot of money? A big house… a lot of power?... a simple thing. Kids think that just because they’re little, they can’t make a change or a contribution. I use Rosa Parks as an example. I ask them, “What did Rosa Parks do?” They answer all kinds of things, until finally one will say: “She sat down.” Ah, you see, a simple thing!
To experience a magical evening just do this one simple thing-take your family down to the Paramount Theater in Oakland Saturday the 19th. Reserved seating adult tickets are $15-$45; Children 12 and under are $8 and are available through ticketmaster, 1-800-745-3000 or the Paramount Theatre Box Office.
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