Pebblebrook Gospel Choir Performs at The Black Box

The massive and powerful marching band practiced in the Pebblebrook High School parking lot, bass and snare drums setting the tempo. However, the sound grew faint once past the main auditorium and inside the Betty A. Gray Enrichment Center on the south side of the school's campus. 

Within the center is a small, flat, black-walled theatre, known to all as the "Black Box." Here, Pebblebrook High School's Gospel Choir poured out praise before a small,  yet attentive audience. 

Zinta Perkins, the current principal of Pebblebrook, had a front row seat for the performance, hands clapping and feet tapping the entire time. Especially as the choir sang "Speak to My Heart," a song dedicated to Perkins by the choir.

Abbey English and Devonte Hampton, two Performing Arts students, have incredibly melodious, yet booming voices. As each delivered their solo performances, the audience's eyes' were fixed on them in wonderment, jaws hanging open and eyes welling up.

 The Gospel Choir is led by  Cobb County Center for Excellence in Performing Arts Faculty Member and Pebblebrook 2011 Teacher of the Year, Evelyn White. 

"I'm so proud of them, and they always to do so well when performing," White said.

The choir is the only one of the school's vocal groups composed of both PA and  traditional students.

 After the performance, when the Black Box was all but empty, the respect that one student has for her well-traveled and much celebrated director was summed up in the private presentation of a flower and hug.

The card simply read, "You are my hero."