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Angels Heard On High

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 16, 2008

CLEARWATER - We do a lot of lip service when it comes to keeping children and teenagers on track.

It starts in the home. Schools play a big role as well. And then there's the spiritual component. Give them a faith foundation - whatever that faith may be - and you give them a moral compass for living at a time when temptation and consequences can significantly hamper a child's journey to success.

So when someone such as Joanne Kambouris comes along, we should sit up and take notice.

Joanne, 47, is director of the Orthodox Youth Choir of Tampa Bay. That's just a volunteer gig. In her other life, she's a music teacher at Forest Lakes Elementary School in Oldsmar and a mother of three kids, ages 22, 20 and 16. So you know this is a busy woman.

She started the choir 2 1/2 years ago. Her purpose was to teach young people about their faith through the music and hymns of their 2,000-year-old religion.

She loves the tradition, the permanence and the stability of the Orthodox Christian faith. She wants to pass that on to a generation that seems to be slipping away from a belief system that emphasizes substance over flash.

"This is something that connects them to their parents, their grandparents and their ancestors," says Joanne, a classically trained pianist. "What they're singing has been sung by generations before them. There's something so special about that."

As the youth initiative chairman of the National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians, she is sadly aware of a trend in her church.

"I see choirs all over the country with nothing but elderly people," she says. "We need a really good model to serve as an example. Because if we don't do something about it now, it's going to be too late in the future."

And what better person than Joanne to take charge? After all, she was a church organist for her choir at St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church in Melbourne - when she was 9. It helped that her father was choir director.

"I fell in love with it at a very young age," she says.

The choir is open to ages 10 to 16 from Orthodox churches throughout the Tampa Bay area. It has 15 members - all girls at this time - from 10 schools, mainly in Pinellas County. They sing in English, Greek and Serbian, with Joanne planning to add other languages as kids from other Orthodox jurisdictions join.

We had enough distractions when I was growing up. It's nothing compared to what competes for kids' attention these days. Homework and the pressure to get good grades are more intense. The Internet, Facebook and MySpace. IPods, video games, cell phones. School and community athletics. Part-time jobs. The list goes on.

Singers Find Fulfillment

So putting together a choir that requires weekly rehearsals, church appearances and community performances is no small feat. But Joanne has managed it so well. Their voices are heavenly, their close-knit fellowship endearing.

"I told them that this is a commitment. It wasn't always going to be easy. So they have to really want to be here and be part of this," Joanne says.

And she made them another promise: Take this seriously, and your life will be enriched, as well as the lives of the people around you.

"I love what this choir has meant to my daughter," says Jean Pflieger, whose 14-year-old, Christina, attends Gulf High in New Port Richey. "I really think it's kept her out of the wrong crowd. She's been singing since she was 2 years old, and now she's doing it in such a positive setting."

The choir is a confidence builder for Alexandra Hartung, 14, who attends Carwise Middle School in Palm Harbor. She says the audition nearly shattered her nerves, she was so shy and unsure of herself. But her love of singing overcame her fear, and now she's thrilled about performing before audiences.

"I'm not shy anymore," she declares. "I can't wait to get out there and sing with the choir."

Olivia Pedroff, 11, of Southside Middle School in St. Petersburg, says being a choir member has drawn her closer to her faith.

"Some of my friends tell me they don't like their religion. I think mine is cool," she says. "It's giving me a great opportunity to get closer to God. Because that's what we do when we sing. We praise God."

Hoping To Tour Greece

In its inaugural year, the choir performed several times, including twice for His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, ecumenical patriarch and spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians, on his 2006 visit to Tarpon Springs. That's akin to Catholic students singing for the pope.

And last year, the choir won a gold medal in its division at the Atlanta Metropolis' Hellenic Dance Festival Choral Competition. The young singers so impressed church officials that they were invited to participate in the Metropolis' Choir Federal 10-day tour of Greece this June.

But it takes a sizable financial commitment to make this trip - about $2,700 each - and some of the kids come from families where budgets are strained. They're scrambling to raise money through church performances and a benefit concert next week.

Support this choir and you're investing in a child's future. These are young people who make a commitment, week after week, to learn centuries-old hymns and songs of their faith. They're not camped in front of a television playing video games; they're doing something that has purpose and meaning.

Joanne believes in her choir members. She sees their commitment, watches their growth, helps nurture their talents. She wants to share her enthusiasm for these young people with the community.

"This is one of the most awe-inspiring things I've done in my life," she says. "And it's created a beautiful feeling inside of me that I'm using the gifts that God gave me. Not only to help the kids, but to be able to send them out into their parishes, to sing with their choirs."

ON STAGE

Music Under the Byzantine Dome

WHAT: Benefit concert for the Orthodox Youth Choir of Tampa Bay and hors d'oeuvres reception

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 409 Old Coachman Road, Clearwater

ADMISSION: $15 tax-deductible donation

INFORMATION: Call (727) 734-7721 or e-mail skambour

@knology.net.

Hear the choir on Michelle Bearden's "Keeping the Faith" segment at 9 a.m. Sunday on WFLA-TV. Michelle Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613 or mbearden@tampatrib.com.

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