Singer shares gifts in C-ville
By Casey Gillis on Aug. 06, 2007
When Twila Paris first heard about the World Visions Korean Children’s Choir, she pictured a group of 5-year-olds singing simple Sunday school songs.
But “that couldn’t be further from the truth,” says Paris, a Christian singer/songwriter who is currently touring with the choir. “We’re talking beautiful, pristine, trained harmonies.”
The choir is made up of children a little older, usually in fifth- through ninth-grades, and at their shows they perform everything from show tunes to spirituals to traditional Korean folk music, all of it combined with elaborate costumes and dance.
“It’s mesmerizing,” Paris says. “… (The choir is made up of kids picked) from among hundreds and hundreds of young children that want to be a part of it. It’s the best of the best.”
World Vision’s founder, Bob Pierce, first organized the Korean Children’s Choir in 1960 after he visited South Korea.
“His heart just went out when he saw how many children were orphaned from the war,” Paris says.
He formed a choir with some of these war orphans, and since then, the kids involved in it have performed more than 3,000 times in Korea and overseas.
In the 1980s, they began recruiting kids from middle-class homes.
“The cool thing is that we don’t sponsor kids in South Korea anymore,” Paris says. “We haven’t for a long time because they don’t need to be sponsored. (Now) tons of people are sponsored around the world by people in South Korea.”
Paris toured along the western half of this country last summer, and this summer, they’re hitting the other half.
The tour kicks off Friday night in North Dakota, and from there, they move east. They’ll be making a stop at Charlottesville’s First Baptist Church at 7 p.m. Aug. 12.
The show features separate performances by Paris and the choir, plus a finale where they sing together as a way for “everyone to worship together at the end of the evening,” she says.
In addition to singing some of her past hits, Paris will also perform some material from her upcoming album, “Small Sacrifice,” which won’t be released until late fall. Vendors will also be selling some special advanced release copies of it at each performance.
The album is her 20th, a follow-up to 2005’s live record, “He Is Exalted: Live Worship.”
Like so many of her contemporaries, Paris began singing with her church choir at a young age, at a time when “there was no such thing as contemporary Christian music,” she says.
At 12, she started writing songs for fun, and by 17, she started to think about music as a serious career option.
Three years later, she recorded her first album, and since then, she’s racked up 32 No. 1 hits — including “Run To You,” “I Choose Grace,” “Wisdom” and “What Am I Without You” — 10 Dove Awards and three American Songwriter Awards.
When it comes to writing, Paris says she can crank out lyrics if she sits down and forces herself to, but those compositions don’t have the same spark “that makes it connect and resonate and settle deeply in someone else’s spirit,” she says. “I feel like I have always been dependent on that spark of inspiration.”
And as long as inspiration keeps striking, Paris has no plans to retire.
“I’ll do this,” she says, “as long as God keeps giving me the little gifts of those songs.”
If You’re Going
WHAT: Twila Paris in concert with World Vision Korean Children’s Choir
WHEN: 7 p.m. Aug. 12
WHERE: First Baptist Church, 735 Park St. in Charlottesville
TICKETS: $15 general admission and $20 Gold Circle Advance. Tickets cost $5 more on the day of the show
INFO: (434) 296-6195 or http://www.cvillefbc.org
COMMENTS