Last August as I was walking in Central Park on a lovely Friday.
I unexpectedly had my first contact with the Boyd Family Singers.
I had never been in the gorgeous arcade that is adjacent to Bethesda Fountain at 72nd Street where the family was singing. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing and how I was reacting to the angelic harmonies and resonance of their sophisticated Gospel music.
Six of the eight of the Boyd children, Abraham, Victory, Angel, Israel, Thalia, and Mosaia were singing with their father. The children’s ages ranged from elementary school age to teenagers . Their voices were outstanding with a uniformity and complementary quality engendered by their father’s careful cultivation of their talents as well as the fact of their being related to each other.
My heart was bursting open with joy and my whole energetic system felt wide open. I felt that God was singing through them.
I didn’t have time to stay and listen so I bought a CD. I played it over and over again. Conveying my experience in words even now is awkward for me because of the deeply personal reaction I continue to have to their music whether in person or by CD.
For awhile I stopped listening to my CD that is mostly comprised of their original compositions. It touched me so deeply that several times when I woke up in the middle of the night my first conscious awareness was of their music and voices running in my heart and head.
I stopped listening because I was a little frightened about responding so strongly to what I felt was an experience of my direct connection to God.
I believe that the Boyds for Praise Company has a sacred mission to help people feel their connectedness to God. This is why I am writing about my experience with them.
Although the family had been here in the past (there is a U-Tube video of them in 2009 singing in the subway that I’ll post here) they have only recently moved from Michigan where Mr. Boyd had been a choir master.
I am hoping that this little entry will inspire you and that you will want to hear more of their work. If you are interested in having one of the CD’s that they sell please let me know.
Here is one of their compositions called “Sing to the Lord”.
A beautiful testimonial about the Boyd’s from Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg can be accessed by clicking here
http://blog.thefoundationstone.org/2010/09/22/a-special-kind-of-beauty/
Finally, here are two U-Tube videos amongst several that are available. I hope that you enjoy them and can share a little of the joy their mission gives me. Please let me know if you want more of the Boyds for Praise Company for yourself if you can’t get to see them weekends from 11 am-2pm underneath the arches leading to Bethesda Fountain.
Meryl Chodosh-Weiss 