The Memphis Youth Performing Arts Company (MYPAC), also known as the Boys and Girls Choir of Memphis, is working hard to prepare these young people for Friday’s concert with Vickie Winans.

From the hollowed social security office building in the South Gate Shopping Center, melodic choral music reverberates onto the parking lot.

Inside, choral leaders are rehearsing 60 boys and girls, ages 8 to 17, for a benefit concert featuring gospel recording artist Vickie Winans.

The concert, entitled “Concert for the Arts,” starts at 7 p.m. Friday, May 16, at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

“Vickie Winans wanted to do something to help us,” said Fleming J. Ivory, founder and director of Memphis Youth Performing Arts Company (MYPAC), also known as the Boys and Girls Choir of Memphis.

A long-time acquaintance, Winans is helping to raise $100,000 for the group’s concert tour of Europe from July 18-26. The choir will perform for schools, churches and royalty under the marquee “From Memphis With Soul.”

“We have been invited by royalty to tour London, England, and Paris, France,” said Ivory, who is a schoolteacher, evangelist, motivational speaker and father of seven.

Passionate about children, Ivory believes in developing youth social skills through the arts. “Statistics show that the arts stimulate the brain and soul,” said Ivory, adding, “We [have] to have MYPAC, Yo! Memphis and STAX.”

Choreographer Abigail Little insisted that the singers use their entire body as an instrument of expression. Here, one of the youngest singers in MYPAC is following her advice.

Ivory, a concert flutist and first tenor, also understands the lure of music and a vocalist’s need to express it in song. He sees Memphis as a hotbed for talent, a city steeped in the blues, hip-hop, R&B and gospel. And he’s always on the look out for talent.

Christen Cooper, a second-grade student at Bailey Station Elementary, drew from her gospel experience when she auditioned in January for MYPAC, which was founded in 2005 at Sheffield High School.

“She sang ‘Falling in Love With Jesus’ over the phone to Mr. and Mrs. Ivory,” said Christen’s mother, Rochelle Cooper.  

A soprano, Christen has been singing in church since she was three. Now 8, she also sings in her father’s group, the Christian Travelers. “I like to sing songs that’s beautiful to me,” said Christen, a Vickie Winans’ fan. “Singing is easy for me.”

Sixteen-year-old Jerome Hutchinson of Craigmont High School joined MYPAC four months after his family moved to Memphis from Flint, Mich.

Jerome sings bass.  Ivory’s nephew, he wants to study forensic science. But for now, “I enjoy performing and I love being in front of a crowd.” In his spare time, Jerome makes hip-hop and gospel beats for his friends.

Alto section leader Jasmine Hodge, 17, said singing is her life, her passion, and “what I want to do in my career.”

She got her start in church as well, but honed her vocal skills in Overton High School’s gospel, chamber, women’s, and concert choirs.

Jasmine, who grew up listening to Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, said, “MYPAC gives me a lot of experience as a leader. It helps me to be selfless. As a leader, you have to give of yourself to help someone else.”

Ivory found Christopher McKinnie singing at South Parkway Church of God in Christ. “He heard me,” said the 10th-grade Trezevant High School student. “Then he talked to my dad.”

Now leader of the tenor section, he said his father took him to a rehearsal and “ever since, I’ve been in MYPAC.”

Also, a member of the youth choir at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Brownsville, Tenn., Shakyra Smith wants to take her singing to the next level — college. “I love singing so much, I sing all over the place,” said Shakyra, a 14-year-old Millington Middle School eighth-grader.

The staff of Memphis Youth Performing Arts Company (MYPAC). Standing from left: Pedrick Thompson Sr., executive director of communication, board member Andrew Hutchinson, director and CEO Fleming Ivory, and assistant director David Edwards. Executive director Stacy Ivory is seated. (MYPAC photos by Wiley Henry)

Before joining MYPAC two years ago, Shakyra sang and danced in talent shows.  As a member of MYPAC, she said, “We get to go places and perform. And I actually get to sing.”  

Other members of MYPAC also dance. They are being trained by choreographer Abigail Little to use their entire body as an instrument of expression when singing.

“You guys need to get into character,” she told the restless boys and girls at Friday’s rehearsal. “Everybody can sing, but you need to get into character.”

Little, 26, a former member of the Carlton Johnson Dance Studio, started with MYPAC in 2005 but left the company and returned two months ago. She is tweaking the group’s performance to minimize potential problems on stage.      

Ivory is a veteran at discovering raw talent and organizing a choir. When he lived in Detroit, he founded the Detroit Children’s Concert Choir (DC3) in 1999, which spawned the Toronto Children’s Concert Choir (TC3).

Last year, the Boys and Girls Choir of Memphis toured both Detroit and Toronto. While in Detroit, Councilwoman Martha Reeves, an early Motown hit maker, presented the group with a key to the city and the Spirit of Detroit Award.

The choir also performed during the 100th Convocation of the Church of God in Christ, the 100 Black Men of Memphis Gala, and toured Atlanta.

“Each year, we want to take them around the world to show the talent and soul of Memphis,” said Ivory, who hopes the group will have the longevity of similar groups like the London Boys Choir, Chicago Soul Children and the Boys Choir of Harlem.  

Horace Turnbull, a MYPAC board member, co-founded the Harlem choir with his brother Dr. Walter Turnbull, who died last year. Turnbull, Ivory said, offered to help by continuing the tradition of Harlem in Memphis.

Vickie Winans

For more information on the concert with Vickie Winans, the Boys and Girls Choir of Memphis or their upcoming tour of Europe,” call Ivory at (901) 474-9899, or log onto www.MYPAC901.com.