Sunday Gospel Community Choir

'Sunday Gospel’ Community Choir loves to sing gospel songs – African/American and related styles. Barbie Cole leads the choir – she was initially inspired to begin a Gospel choir by New Zealand’s Tony Backhouse. Tony has been called ‘the godfather of a-cappella and gospel choir’; he leads national and international workshops spreading this unique genre worldwide.

Barbie has no formal choir leading experience, but she has enjoyed singing in harmony from a young age. She is a Riverside Community member and co-leads the world music choir ‘Inakord’. ‘Sunday Gospel’ is a community choir, and everyone is welcome. We sing informal acapella style in 4-part harmony. We are an open-access group; auditions are not required. The songs are taught aurally, so being able to read music is not necessary. We do occasional performances and belong to the ‘Top of the South’ Community Choirs Organisation which includes eight choirs from Nelson, Golden Bay and Greymouth.

This group of 8 choirs come together once a year for either a ‘Gathering’ or a Combined Choirs public performance. Our singers come from around the Motueka area and also from Nelson. At the moment each session is attended by around 20 singers, some attend more regular as time allows. We begin each session by singing simple warm-up songs, and we may then sing a few songs that we know well before working on a new song we are learning or brushing up on those songs that need a bit more practice. We meet for fun, friendship, and the joy of experiencing the gospel sound…. a cup of tea and a chat.