For 50 years in an Orlando tradition, Gene Tate has sung ‘Hallelujah!’
For 50 years, the Messiah Choral Society has provided Central Florida with free Christmas cheer. And for 50 years, Gene Tate hasn’t missed a beat.
Last Sunday, Tate, 90, was rehearsing Handel’s masterwork — just as he has been doing since the organization’s founding in 1973.
“It’s the camaraderie, the excitement, the beautiful music,” Tate says of his love for the organization. “It’s all of it.”
No audition is required to join the Messiah Choral Society; everyone is welcome. Each year, the singers rehearse weekly throughout the fall and then perform a free concert of Handel’s “Messiah” at the start of the Christmas season. Registrations to sing in this year’s performance will be accepted through Sept. 25 at messiahchoralsociety.org.
“I like the spirit of the group,” says John Sinclair, who has conducted the choir for more than 30 years. “I like that they work so hard to give this gift to the community.”
Sinclair, who also is music director of the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, receives a modest stipend for his time, as do rehearsal accompanist Kristine Griffin, professional guest soloists, the orchestra’s musicians and the chorus masters, who assist with rehearsals. But no one’s there for the money — it’s about the love of the music and the glorious tradition.
The nonprofit organization was founded by William Eugene “Bill” Jarvis, a prominent Orlando music director who died in 2013. Through ad sales in the concert’s program, grants, donations and annual dues of $45, members raise the necessary funds to put on the concert, which this year will take place at 3 p.m. Nov. 20 in Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Society president Rob Landry estimates it takes $50,000-$55,000 per year to present the free show.
Tate recalls the time years ago he almost broke his 50-year streak. He was appearing in a fashion show in Altamonte Springs that ran long. He drove as fast as he could to the performance but …
“I made it to the Bob Carr,” he says, “but they had already started so I sang offstage.”
He was urged to take a place in view of the audience but chose to project his voice from the wings.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” he says. “It wouldn’t have been right.”
Rehearsals are businesslike but peppered with laughter. They start promptly at 2 in Tiedtke Concert Hall at Rollins College, and by 2:01, about 100 voices are already raised in song.
“This year’s an important
year,” says Sinclair at the top of rehearsal, noting the golden anniversary, “so let’s pay attention to the little
details. … This has to be the best you’ve ever sung it.”
Sinclair guides the singers with a twinkle: “Friends
don’t let friends sing ‘R,’ ” he admonishes with a smile. “Sopranos, what did those notes ever do to you? No need to hurt them!”
He urges the choir members to sing a particularly serious passage “with the solemnity of a soloist at the Queen’s funeral.”
But Sinclair is quick with compliments, as well: “Nicely done, folks. I love the enthusiasm. Good job.”
And he reminds the singers that performing the “Messiah” — which he calls “a mainstay of Western culture” — is a significant undertaking of which they should be proud.
“It’s not an easy piece,” he says. “It’s really hard.”
Fifty minutes in, the beaming singers soar through the famed Hallelujah Chorus.
Tate’s failing eyesight means he can’t see the music clearly, but after half a century that isn’t a problem.
He has had his bass part — and some of the tenor part, as well — memorized for at least five years.
“Once you learn it, you learn it,” he says.
He sang with his home church in Georgia, where he
grew up, and through four years at Georgia Military College. He and his wife moved to Central Florida, where Tate’s family had roots, in 1961. She died of cancer in 1975, and Tate raised their three children while running a hardware store for many years. Today, he owns a lawn-mowing business and still personally tends to five yards.
“Two on Monday, three on Tuesday, and that’s enough,” he says.
Tate volunteers at the Dr. Phillips Center, performed at the old Civic Theatre and spent 33 years in the chorus of Orlando Opera, and later its successor, Opera Orlando. Twice, he played a corpse in “Gianni Schicci.” (“I fell asleep when we first did it,” he confesses.)
“I’ve never had a voice lesson, never had an acting lesson … it just came naturally,” Tate says.
He figures he has “another 10 years yet” to sing Handel’s “Messiah.”
“The good Lord gave me a talent for singing,” he says. “So I sing.”