Hedi Rudd
Choir rehersal shot from above (on a balcony)
Tamera Stanley, conducting, and Leotha Stanley, on keyboard, help the Martin Luther King Jr. Choir get in tune before its once-a-year performance.
On a Saturday morning in mid-January, a group of people are gathered in the pews at Mt. Zion Baptist Church chatting quietly and waiting for rehearsal to begin. On stage Leotha and Tamera Stanley, who are married, confer while a man slips in and takes his place at a drum set.
Tamera signals it is time to begin and starts by leading the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir in a shoulder stretch. “We hold a lot of tension in our shoulders,” she says. Leotha readies himself at the keyboard and hits a note as Tamera directs the group to start singing their scales. “Show-offs,” Leotha says with a grin.
Next up is “Walk with Me,” a traditional African American hymn. The song is one of three that the choir will perform at the annual Madison-Dane County MLK Day Observance at the Overture Center — the first in-person observance since the onset of the COVID pandemic.
Tamera raises her hands, the drummer picks up a beat and the group starts singing. A minute in, Leotha stops playing and the singing trails off. “Somebody was wrong,” he says. “Who was it?”
Three men — all seated together in the bass section — each throw a hand in the air, accepting the blame on behalf of the group. The choir members erupt in laughter.
Leotha turns his attention to the tenor section, sitting stage left. “What is this song saying?” he says. “You have some drama, some discord, you want someone to walk with you but you sound too sweet to ask.... I want you to get ugly while you sing, show that passion, let your face get wrinkly.” Leotha directs them to “take it from the top” as the drums kick in again.
Leotha, a professional musician and retired Madison firefighter, is the music director at Mt. Zion, where he leads several choirs. The MLK Community Choir, which he has led since the early 1990s, is unique in that anybody can participate. “It is open to anyone, church or unchurched,” he says.
Ellie Feitlinger has participated in the MLK Community Choir since moving back to Madison five years ago. Her father, Billy Feitlinger, helped lead the effort to rename the street in front of the City County Building Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. when he was on the Madison city council. She has participated in MLK Jr. observances since she was a toddler and remembers the time Leotha came to her elementary school to sing with the students. “I will continue to be a part of it every year,” she says.
Claire Olsen, who is singing in this year’s MLK Community Choir, says she met Leotha and “Miss Tammy” when she took their gospel choir class at UW-Whitewater. “I’ve been singing ever since,” she says. She joined a choir at Leotha’s request a couple of years ago when he was putting a group together for a summer Concerts on the Square performance; now she is singing lead on “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” recorded in 1969 by Jackie DeShannon.
When it comes time to practice the song at the rehearsal, Olsen leaves the soprano section of the choir to take the stage. The energy in the room hits a high as members of the choir start singing and clapping with new vigor. At the end of the song choir member Latanya Maymon throws up her arms and cheers. “Beautiful dear, beautiful,” she says as she approaches Olsen to give her a hug and a kiss. A member of the MLK choir for a number of years, Maymon is inspired by the people from “all different walks of life,” she says. “It’s a combustion of excitement.”
Leotha echoes that thought. “The choir really has sowed my faith in people in their willingness to commune,” he says. “I just love music in that it brings people together, that we might be able to be one voice. I just love that aspect of the choir.”
Number of participants in this year’s MLK Community Choir:
About 45
The only requirement:
Attend two rehearsals
First song Leotha Stanley taught himself on the piano:
Motown hit “Heat Wave” by Martha and the Vandellas
Most sung song by the MLK Community Choir:
“We Shall Overcome”
Leotha’s favorite song to play with the MLK Community Choir:
“If I Can Help Somebody” Says Leotha: “It was one of [Martin Luther King Jr.’s] favorite songs.”
