Joy, Amplified

From Oakland rehearsal rooms to the 50-yard line, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir brought decades of preparation, heart, and professionalism to the nation’s biggest stage.

(cross-published on Medium)

Two Calls, Two Ensembles: Reputation Meets Opportunity on the 50-Yard Line

On the heels of our 40th Anniversary Holiday concert, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir’s (OIGC) name must have still been humming in the air. In mid-January, after the whirlwind of numerous holiday performances and while preparing for Black History Month, I got a call from Zoe Ellis. Can Terrance bring an ensemble to join Glide Memorial Church’s ensemble at the Pro Bowl? “Of course! How exciting.”

A few days later, our Event Producer, reached out: She had gotten a call from the NFL asking if our choir could perform at the Super Bowl.

Two of the nation’s biggest stages within a week: the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl. For some, it might have felt impossible. For us, it was a conversation of logistics.

Founded in the mid-1980s by award-winning Gospel artist Terrance Kelly — widely recognized as a leading voice of Gospel Music in the Bay Area — OIGC has spent decades building a reputation for artistic excellence on stage and unwavering professionalism behind the scenes. When opportunity arrives, we are ready. As a volunteer-based nonprofit arts organization, readiness is not accidental — it is sustained by community commitment, disciplined artistry, and careful stewardship of limited resources.

OIGC is often selected because of who we are: intergenerational, multicultural, interfaith, and we are also authentic, respectful, and technically excellent stewards of the genre. This year, the entire Super Bowl experience was very intentional about selecting diverse artists. The NFL framed this as part of a broader inclusivity initiative, deliberately acknowledging racial, cultural, and disability representation while retaining the centrality of the traditional anthem. The assembly of performers and accessibility elements was not incidental, but a calculated effort to present the Super Bowl and the NFL as a platform that celebrates diversity and cultural acknowledgment.

Bay Area.
Diversity.
Gospel Choir.

No wonder they reached out to OIGC!

Pro Bowl: Partnership and Playfulness

Under the musical direction of Zoe Ellis — who first sang with OIGC in the early 1990s and has collaborated with Terrance over the years — the Glide Ensemble has continued a legacy of soulful uplift and radical inclusivity in the Bay Area, bringing joy, connection, and musical excellence to community celebrations, civic events, and Sunday services, all while embodying the ensemble’s mission of liberation, acceptance, and shared expression. Glide was contacted first to perform, and we were honored when they reached out to include us.

Inviting OIGC to perform alongside Glide Memorial Church at the Pro Bowl was as much a visual statement as a musical one. At the Pro Bowl, ten singers from OIGC joined ten singers from the Glide Memorial Church Ensemble to perform Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Together with Glide, our joint ensemble physically and metaphorically bridged Oakland and San Francisco on a national stage. The rehearsals were intense, and our green room offered an unexpected surprise: it doubled as the green room for the Puppy Bowl! Between last-minute adjustments and vocal warm-ups, the singers posed with the dogs, laughter echoing across the room. It was a lighthearted reminder that joy fuels excellence.

“It was absolutely awesome to see the players, and walk around the Moscone Center backstage,” shared Zoe Ellis, “but I think the part of the experience we got right, the best part for me was the fellowship.” With singers converging from the two ensembles, hours spent together in the hurry-up-and-wait backstage provided time for meaningful connections. Zoe recalls two singers – one from each ensemble – discovering they had grown up in neighboring towns, graduated HS the same year, and knew many people in common. For Zoe, these sorts of profoundly personal human connections are what make an experience like this unforgettable.
The photos that singer Maria Long shared of her backstage with the puppies were beyond adorable, and there’s even one of Terrance in his 49ers jersey with a corgi in a matching jersey.

From the moment they stepped onto the field, the joint ensemble carried both the weight of history and the exhilaration of the present. The crowd’s energy, the scale of the stadium, and the significance of the anthem intertwined in a moment that was simultaneously thrilling and grounding.

Even, perhaps especially, in a high-pressure environment, collaboration and mission are inseparable. In that small group of voices, our decades-long reputation was alive and resonant.

Super Bowl: Global Stage, Local Roots

Just days later, another ten singers from OIGC stood on the Super Bowl LX stage alongside Charlie Puth, the Sainted Trap Choir, Kenny G, the Noize Orchestra, and ASL interpreter Fred Beam. The stadium and broadcast audience were massive, but our ensemble carried themselves with the poise of seasoned artists.

With Whitney Houston’s iconic Super Bowl performance as a the gold standard, Charlie Puth has shared that he had his heart set on meeting the moment. His arrangement was tender and modern, and he gave an intentionally nuanced performance. He accompanied himself on a Rhodes electric keyboard and was supported by an orchestra and choral ensemble, including members of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Sainted Trap Choir, and the Color of Noize Orchestra, creating a spacious, gospel-infused texture.

The Sainted Trap Choir is a 25-member group out of North Carolina who fuses gospel traditions with contemporary trap and hip-hop, delivering high-energy performances that celebrate Southern Black church culture and modern music. Puth had recorded previously with the all-Black Sainted Trap Choir to lay down rehearsal track. The OIGC ensemble brought something different: diversity in age, faith, and cultural background creating a richer, fuller tableau. It was a reminder that opportunity often seeks those who embody both excellence and identity: who you are, and the story you carry, matters as much as what you sing.

With just two weeks to prepare the ensemble, Terrance learned all four parts – Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass – of Puth’s arrangement with only the recording from the Sainted Trap Choir to go on. The ensemble squeezed in several extra rehearsals so Terrance could teach them their parts by ear before their first time on the field the Friday before the big game. Each singer went through a thorough background check, signed detailed nondisclosures, etc. Our Event Producer, Kerry Fiero, managed dozens of calls and emails with multiple contacts.

"To be a part of the Benito Bowl” said Kerry with a smile, when I asked her about the event which this year featured a Halftime show with Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny, “where diversity and inclusion was celebrated and Love over Hate was promoted, OIGC’s participation was sympatico! I was so happy, and not at all surprised, that our choir was able to perform so beautifully on one of the biggest stages with short notice and fast preparation." This year’s Super Bowl is estimated to have had more than 70,000 in attendance and more than 125 million viewers worldwide!

Stepping onto the field, Dan Nazarian felt “a holy blur of potential.” The roar of the fans, the lights, the cameras — it all merged into an overwhelming, almost spiritual moment. For Rachel Joseph, weaving through the crowded sidelines with her line partner from Sainted Trap Choir, it was a human connection amid chaos. Their hands clasped as they found their places, grounding each other in focus and presence. Later, Kenny G leaned over and whispered, “Isn’t it just wild that we’re here?” A sweet anecdote to remind her, and all of us, that awe of such a moment never fades, even for the likes of the Kenny G.

Singer Christina Zou recalled the lighter moments too: after rehearsal, she and the Sainted Trap Choir broke into an impromptu a cappella rendition of Like a Prayer. “It reminded me why gospel music matters,” she said. “People said this year’s Anthem made them feel hopeful — that means everything.”

Max Gerlock experienced a full-circle moment, stepping onto the field as Green Day – a childhood favorite band – began to play. They held back tears, singing parts learned by ear alongside the Sainted Trap Choir, feeling the quiet acknowledgment of their approval. Erin Murray described the production as simultaneously overwhelming and profoundly human. “Being part of that moment reminded me how music can change lives for performers and audiences alike.”

Singer Melanie Robins recalls, “There was a sweet moment when Charlie Puth was about to perform and was clearly feeling nervous. Brandi Carlisle had just finished her performance of “America the Beautiful” and looked over at Charlie and mouthed, “I love you” and he took a deep breath and mouthed it back. It filled my heart to see Carlisle, an incredible artist and seasoned musician offering support to the young artist.”
After the national anthem, the ensemble walked back to the tent where they had been stationed and were greeted by hundreds of Bad Bunny’s grass people and crew, says Melanie. “All of them clapping and whooping and high-fiving us. My spirit was so filled!”
Media coverage from KTVU FOX 2 to Riff Magazine to Rolling Stone highlighted OIGC’s presence alongside national artists. Visibility matters — especially at this scale, and especially for small arts organizations like ours whose sustainability depends on community support. But the deeper impact was human: collaboration, precision, joy, and shared purpose.

Behind the Curtain

These small ensembles — just ten singers at each event — represented a 75-member, volunteer-based choir sustained by dues-paying artists and community partnerships. Their performances were a concentrated expression of OIGC’s mission, reputation, and ethos. These experiences showed what happens when preparation meets opportunity. This wasn’t just strategy; it is readiness, cultivated through years of professional discipline, interfaith collaboration, and artistic excellence. And theirs was not the only OIGC outing in February: two other small ensembles brought Black History Month programs to middle school assemblies in the South Bay and Peninsula; a small ensemble TV spotlight; and three sold-out concerts in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Oakland, rounded out an incredible month of performances.

From rehearsal rooms to green rooms, from laughter with puppies at the Pro Bowl to awe-inspiring stadium lights at the Super Bowl, our singers show that excellence, joy, and the power of music can come from a small, focused group. And when opportunity meets preparedness, the result can touch hearts across thousands of miles and millions of screens.

Joy, Amplified

In a cultural landscape dominated by billion-dollar productions, it is often small, community-rooted arts organizations that carry the deepest reservoirs of authenticity and joy.

We got the calls. We answered.

At both the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl, alongside an incredible line-up of collaborators, our singers brought their voices, hearts, and humanity to national stages. The impressions that remain — of hands clasped on crowded sidelines, spontaneous laughter, tearful awe, and the electricity of music connecting performer and audience — show what’s possible when community, preparation, and opportunity converge.

Reputation met opportunity.

Music changing hearts and lives.

These unique experiences remain as a reminder that sharing joy with intention, rooted in mission, resonates far beyond the stadium lights.

Here are just some of the
many press mentions about the event!

Two Calls, Two Ensembles: Reputation Meets Opportunity on the 50-Yard Line

40th Anniversary Holiday Celebration!