by Kenya Smith/Intern
kenya.smith@tidewaternews.com

COURTLAND
A dream is about to happen to come true for one music director and his choir.

Mike Pollard, chancel choir director at High Street United Methodist Church, has long been working toward getting his choir prepared to record an album.

“I wanted to do something special with the choir because they are like family to me,” said Pollard. “Plus, a lot of people in our church love the choir and felt that we should record a CD.”

Since February, the choir has been practicing twice a week for the recording, starting from one hour of practice a day to now two hours a day.

The plan was to take this group to Nashville and record its first album in a studio built to accommodate a full choir.

The membership consists of about 27 people, so the logistics of transporting a group this large to Nashville for several days of recording became quite a challenge. Also, the expense of the project has been another major consideration.

Through fund-raising projects and tremendous support from the church and the community, the director and choir have reached their target financially. The problem was that due to various obligations, not everyone could go. Therefore, a decision was made to leave no man or woman behind. If they couldn’t get everyone to Nashville, then Nashville had to come to Franklin.

CCT Music, a recording company that specializes in remote recordings for churches, will come to Franklin in mid-June to set up at High Street to complete this project that has been several years in the making.

According to Pollard, who has been at High Street for more than 30 years, the recording will consist of both traditional and contemporary music that this choir has performed over the last 15 years such as “Finish Well” by Karen Peck & New River; “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech; and “Applause of Heaven” by Phil Burfoot.

Pollard anticipates that the album will make a positive impact in Franklin.

“After the recording, I hope that people will be excited about the CD and that the music from the CD will be an inspiration and blessing to the community,” he said.

Since music has always played a huge role in his life, Pollard said he truly believes that music is important in the faith community, for it is a gift from God that moves people to His Word.

“My dad was a pastor,” said Pollard, “and he has said that it is music that helps prepare people for the message. It is an inspiration to us all, and it helps us deal with the life’s stress and issues.”

The recording will take three days to complete, and the finished project is expected to be released in late August or early September.