Choir directors Arthur Gremillion of Mount Zion First Baptist Church, front, left, and Christian Vigé of First Baptist Church Baton Rouge, front, right, combine dtheir church's choirs for a 'Gathered Voices' last summer. Choir members from other churches also participated. The second concert is set for Saturday, Aug.
17. The decade-long friendship between Christian Vigé and Arthur Gremillion is bound by church choirs. Vigé is the minister of music at First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, and Gremillion is choir director at Mount Zion First Baptist Church.
But the choirs are different in style. First Baptist's Sanctuary Choir performs classical choral music, while Mount Zion, which has a predominantly African American congregation, performs gospel. Which gave Vigé and Gremillion a thought.
"We had been doing music together, and we had always talked about the true depiction of what heaven will be like with all of every tongue, tribe and nation, like the scripture says," Vigé said. "And we always talked about how though he and I are very different as music colleagues, our friendship is kind of a true depiction of what unity in Christ looks like, especially now in today's society." So, last summer, they decided to bring together their two choirs in a concert called "Gathered Voices.
" The idea caught on. A diverse group of choir members from other churches asked to participate. "We ended up having people from 17 churches in the choir," Vigé said.
"The First Baptist orch.