When I first began to arrange the song, In His Eyes, I did not envision a choir. It was not that I was not planning on having one, the truth was I never thought of it.
The idea came one dreadfully rainy day in Charleston, SC. It was spring break, and I was touring with my college's touring choir. We traveled all around and sang at a different church every night . The day was a blast, but the weather was so so so cold. About 10 other choir members and I found ourselves soaked, cold, and willing to be anywhere warm, and this is when we stumbled upon a college campus. As we walked around the long halls we stumbled upon a choir room, which was a sanctuary for a bunch of tired, wet, college choir members.
We sang some worship songs, and then one of the other choir members asked to hear these songs I had been working on. Eager to share, Mollie, Giovanna, Brooke, and I sang the song, Arise, for our friends. At the end of the song we looked up and found one friend crying, moved by the work of the Holy Spirit.
I then thought, there are a bunch of talented singers in this room, and we have nowhere to be with no desire to return to the great outdoors.... what if we sang another song? I asked them if they were interested in singing one of my songs. With much excitement they agreed, and I wrote all the words on the chalk board and recorded us as we began to sing, In His Eyes. We sang for a while until a professor came in and said he needed to use to the room to teach.
We left Charleston the next day and began our journey to the next church. On the way I began listening to the choir practice tracks and was shocked by how amazing they sounded! I was moved when I heard all of my friends worshiping God through this music.
I realized I wanted to have choir parts written for this song but did not want to wait until I got back in 4 days to work on this. So I decided to work on it right in the moment. I pulled out my tour packet (which was given to us in a manilla folder) and began drawing musical staffs on the outside of the folder. I then pulled out my phone, opened up the piano app, and began writing the music. Within the hour I had written the main part of the choir piece, "Jesus, King Jesus, Savior of Man, O, Jesus, King Jesus, Born in Bethlehem". I wrote 6 of the 8 choir parts for this section on the bus and wrote the other two parts in later. (photo of Adam on the bus was taken by Brooke Bannister as he was writing the choir piece. She said, "I want to remember this moment in case something big happens with this.")
When we returned home from the choir tour, I found sheet music software, downloaded it, plugged in all my notes, and sat in awe of what I was hearing. The part you hear on the album in this section is what was written that day, with the exception of the Tenor II and Alto II parts, which were added later when I had the computer software.
I then asked my choir friends if they would be willing to sing the entire song once I finished all the choir parts, and by the grace of God, we were able to sing it the following Thursday and Friday, before we all had to leave school due to Co-vid 19.
Over the next several months I finished the choir music and then found additional singers to record it. I belive God brought these wonderful people into my life for such a time as this. Touring Choir sharpened my musical abilities and helped me to understand the structure of Choral Music. All the training I recieved in Touring Choir played such an integral part in the writing of this music.
More importantly I would not have met all the wonderful people who have blessed my life so abundantly and who so gracious shared their God given gifts with me to make the vision for this song come to life (please read the "Hidden Features" section of the song, In His Eyes, so you can see what they helped me to accomplish).
The members of the choir are listed from left to right below:
Tenor I & II : Spencer Simpson
Bass I: Adam Bannister
Bass II: Caleb Hixon
Alto II: Shannon Migliore
Alto I: Brooke Bannister
Soprano II: Anna Shoenthal, Mollie Landman
Soprano I: Giovanna Johnson, Annie Polka