Dennis Martin

The faces.

That’s what Dennis Martin likes most about directing the choir. “I love seeing the different expressions on the singers’ faces,” he says. “A choir is living proof that people are capable of more as a team than individually. Maybe that’s why I’ve always liked directing them.”

Three years ago, Dennis Martin co-founded Hope Gospel Singers, a young adult choir in Paris. Once just a handful of singers, the group now has 45 members, both French and American between the ages of 20 and 30, recruited mostly through the enthusiastic word of mouth of other singers. Every Monday at 7 pm the choir meets for rehearsals in a vast and drafty Baptist church in the 7th arrondissement.

Sometimes, rehearsals slide into friendly and noisy chatter sessions, but Martin’s patience never wears thin: at 51, he claims spending time with sometimes unruly youths “keeps him young.”

Fête de la Musique - 06/2007

Born in New Holland, a small town in Pennsylvania, Martin grew up in a religious family of farmers. He began taking piano lessons at 8 years old and played with various school and college bands before directing his first vocal ensemble during his junior year of college. When he graduated in 1979 from Geneva College, a Christian university, with a degree in accounting, Martin was eager to see the world. He considered joining protestant development missions in Africa, but accepted a two-year internship in the Grace Brethren International Mission in Paris instead.

There he met his wife Jeannie, an English teacher. They returned to the United States for five years before moving back to France with their two daughters (a third one was born in France) in 1993. Their first seven years back was in the small town of Chalon sur Saône in Burgundy. In the traditionally Catholic French countryside, where many villagers frown at new approaches to religion, being a member of a Protestant mission was “a challenge,” Martin recalls. But in the end, the couple developed many lasting friendships in the region.
Martin, who believes that spirituality can be expressed outside the dogma of religion, hosts bible study groups in Paris to “get religion out of the church.” In one such group he met Mellyza Sanches, a singer and vocal coach with whom he started Hope Gospel Singers in the spring of 2004.

Although gospel music is religious by nature, Martin is quick to say that the choir is open to all: In the end, what matters to him is the common love for the rich harmonies and uplifting rhythms. Thanks to his energy and conviction, his earnest, easy smile, and light American accent, Martin has won over many Parisians. “Traditional gospel seems to be bigger in France than it is in the United States,” he observes. “In the U.S., the choirs I sang in usually chose more modern, soul or jazzy styles. But in Paris, traditional Negro spirituals are a big hit in all of the choir’s concerts.”

Voix sur Berges - 06/2007

One such big hit takes place every year during the infamous Fête de la musique. Last June, a Hope Gospel Singers concert took place next to a café on the place d’Alésia; after just a few minutes, a crowd of more than 100 was clapping along enthusiastically. “We got to share our music with people we would never have reached otherwise,” Martin remembers.

Last May, the choir participated for the first time in the International Gospel Festival of Rueil Malmaison, just outside of Paris. Professional and amateur choirs from around the world came together for three days of joyful singing, and Hope Gospel Singers were able to sing alongside gospel greats such as Babbie Mason and Destiny Praise.
Martin hopes to lead the choir towards such new experiences and audiences. “I don’t like being in the spotlight myself,” he says, “but I love seeing the star in each singer come out during a concert. The hard part,” he confesses, “is trying to get native French singers not to sing ‘When ze Saints come marching in!’”

For more info about Hope Gospel Singers: http://www.myspace.com/hope_gospel_singers

Lorena Gaillot
(originalement écrit pour www.theparistimes.com)