Grant Park Symphony Orchestra plays gospel music for first time with Walt Whitman & the Soul Children of Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The legendary gospel group Walt Whitman & the Soul Children of Chicago has been around for 40 years – and on Wednesday, they did something they have never done before.
The Citizen Newspaper Group noted that the choir began as a school choir in 1981, when Whitman – minister of music at St. John De La Salle Church in Roseland – became a music teacher at St. John De La Salle School. The choir opened up to children around the city the following year, and has traveled the world in the 40 years since, the newspaper reported.
On Wednesday evening, the Soul Children of Chicago celebrated their 40th anniversary with a gospel jubilee – joined by the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. The performance was held at Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
This was the orchestra's first time playing gospel music. As CBS 2's Marybel González reported, it was a soulful pairing that came together in perfect harmony.
"I'm only 15, but it's just an amazing experience for me to just be on this huge stage, and just to interact with people and change their lives," said Soul Children of Chicago member Charisma Boler.
And that it did. The jubilee brought together five generations' worth of the choir's alumni.
"It's the end of an era for us. We got five generations of soul children coming so from 1981 all the way until now," Whitman said before the performance. "It's going to be good old church music -- music that stirs up the soul."
Marlon Johnson is of the original members of Soul Children of Chicago from back in 1981. He said being part of the musical movement helped him and his fellow members foster their careers as adults.
"We have lawyers. We have doctors. We have pastors. We have celebrity stylists. One alumni is a stylist for Michelle Obama," Johnson said. "So this group has definitely laid the groundwork."
It is a mission that Dr. Whitman set out to achieve when he first started the organization. He wanted music to be a catalyst for change.
"We teach them to be drug free, gang free, academically inclined. So there are some things that we teach - principles - that keep them and transform them to become young leaders," Whitman said. "You're looking into one generation feeding into another generation, and so you're creating that one thing of, 'This is what I can be.'"
The Soul Children of Chicago have won numerous awards and recognitions throughout the years, and on Wednesday night, they paid it forward at a post-concert celebration. There, they set to award $20,000 in scholarship money to graduating seniors of their choir headed off to college.