Published: November 01, 2007 05:52 pm      

SONGS FROM THE HEART: NFHA Youth Choir

It’s hard to get young people quiet, especially after they’ve been at school all day. But at a recent rehearsal in the Doris W. Jones Resource Center in Niagara Falls, 50 or so choir members did their best to be still while two young soloists went over their parts again and again.

Their teacher was impatient with even the slightest inattention. It was clear she allowed nothing but their best efforts. The result was a powerful wall of sound as the youth choir of the Niagara Falls Housing Authority unleashed their voices into a gospel version of “Over the Rainbow.”

Surround by the whirl of youthful energy, choir director Diana M. Reeves is intent on refining their voices, their spirits and, ultimately, their success beyond the music. Their success with the music itself, has already been established under Reeves’ hand.

“The choir has its own following,” said Stephanie Cowart, director of the Niagara Falls Municipal Housing Authority. The children have performed at the inauguration of state Sen. Antoine Thompson, at Shea’s Buffalo, as well as First Night Buffalo. There are some in the community who simply will not miss their performances. For that, Cowart credits choirmaster Reeves.

“Anyone who comes in contact with her will tell you she is a cut above,” Cowart said. “She writes, she performs and she teaches. I have called her a modern Beethoven.”

Reeves has performed with some of the country’s best Christian singers and musicians, including James Cleveland, who is considered the driving force behind the creation of modern gospel music, and televangelist T.D. Jakes.

Raised in California by her deeply Christian parents from a large family of ministers. She began her training as a classical pianist at the age of 4 and, she said, only a few years later, “I started teaching the choir in my grandfather’s ministry.”

Since then Reeves has traveled around the country, teaching and singing Christian music. “I am a minister of music,” she said. “When the Lord calls me, I move.”

The call wasn’t quite clear, however, when she moved to Niagara Falls. She never planned to stay. She only came to care for her mother who was ill. “When I came here to be with my mother, I had no intention of doing anything with music. I didn’t have to, and I didn’t want to ... my son felt as though I was not completely happy. He kept pushing me to send out a couple of resumes.”

When she wouldn’t send out resumes, her son did. He sent out three without her knowledge, and she received responses from each.

She took the position with the seven-year-old youth choir at the housing authority. The choir had been set up, according to its director Cowart, as part of the agency’s plan to serve the residents with more than just housing. The choir, Cowart said, has fit in well with the authority’s increasing efforts to empower the residents and the surrounding community.

“We’re very fortunate she came here,” Cowart said.

Reeves’ intent to get divine sounds from her young charges is more than a matter of keeping them occupied. It’s a matter of changing their lives, she said, and the lives of others.

“It’s my desire that, not only do they touch the city, but they are able to touch the nation and the world. I want them to always know that there is more.”

Big goals, but not impossible considering the impact the choir has already had on its young singers, who seem to rise to the challenge of the demands for excellence placed upon them.

“When the children come here, they know that we except a lot of them, and we don’t apologize for that,” said Annie Fields Chapman, general manager of the Doris W. Jones Resource Center, a place for educational, health, and support services for housing authority residents and the Niagara Falls community. “We raise the bar for them because we have to raise the bar for them.”

Reeves knows her music can teach much more than notes and pretty sounds.

“I am letting them know that God has called them for a major purpose, and if they keep walking in a positive light and keep doing things that are good and putting themselves in places where people can see them — well, you never know who is out there looking at you,” Reeves said.

“Who is to say they’ll touch the world?” she said. “But, who is to say that they won’t?”

Contact editor Michele DeLuca at 693-1000, ext. 157.