HISTORY OF HEAVEN BENT CHOIR

Heaven Bent metamorphosed out of an Auckland gospel singing workshop with Sydney based Tony Backhouse in January 1996. Inspired by the gospel singing experience, a group of participants decided to form a community choir and sing together once a week.

We began almost immediately in the Baptist Church Hall in Seymour St in Ponsonby where, six years later, we still meet every Tuesday night. The focus was on the joy of singing. The group remained very informal, with super-talented musician Nick Prater emerging as the de facto choir leader.

When Nick left for England we realized that, informal or not, we needed some sort of conductor/leader to harness out talents and keep us focused. Weeks of auditions followed while we searched for someone imbued with the gospel spirit who would “fit”.

We finally appointed Louise Haywood as choir director and adopted the name Heaven Bent by majority vote.  We evolved a more formal structure and began to perform. The hugely enthusiastic response to our early gigs in the Alleluya Café and Hopetoun Alpha encouraged us to perform further – and began our struggle to find a balance between the exacting work of preparing for performances and coming together to sing “just for the joy of it”.

After working with us for 18 months, Louise left because of pressure of work. A strong desire by a group of members to further develop our musical and performing abilities led to the appointment of Rhythm-and-Blues maestro Rick Bryant as choir director, to help move us on.  And he did.  With his years of performing experience, Rick focused us more on performing and fostered soloists and Helen Phare created many great arrangements. Some choir members, wanting less focus on performing, left at this point – and evolved into One Voice, a wonderful community choir dedicated to singing World Music.

When Rick left after two years,  Helen Phare and several other choir members went with him and formed the basis of that other great gospel choir, Jubilation.

Joyous choir member, music ethnologist and teacher Jeni Little stepped in as leader, and introduced many of the more interactive African songs we now sing. Now Jeni too, with too many teaching, family and other musical commitments has moved on, leaving us in the capable hands of Max Maxwell who had been sharing the director’s job for the previous year.

Each new choir director has expanded us in different ways, honing our musical skills along with our repertoire, as we maintain the balance of singing for the sheer joy of it and preparing for performances. And Tony Backhouse’s ongoing enthusiastic support continues to be a constant inspiration.