The History Of Getting The Spirit Gospel Camp

Hi, my name is Marty Kirkman. I am an American living over seven years in Germany. I work professionally in Music and have worked with Blues, Soul, R&B, Gospel, Brass Bands, Cajun and Zydeco as well as music from other diverse cultures such as Hawaii, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, Mongolia, Denmark and Germany. I am currently managing the career of Louisiana's own King of Accordian, Dwayne Dopsie & The Hellraisers and working freelance as an Event Manager. Through some 60 plus trips to New Orleans and Southern Louisiana, New Orleans has become somewhat of a second home for me. I regularly attend Southern Baptist church services when I travel to New Orleans and travel within the ‘inner circle' of musicians and artists in that historic city.

After moving here to Germany in 2002, I was invited to join the Gospel choir, Gospel & More (GAM) from Halle(Westf.) Now you have to understand, that I had never openly sang in my life outside of the shower! I also openly loved Gospel music and the chance to sing really tickled me. My friend assured me that with 70 plus members in the choir, a wrong note here or there wouldn't matter. It was with GAM that I found my voice to sing. It was a very exciting experience. I sang with this choir from May 2003 until December 2008. The experience not only changed my life but opened my eyes to a newfound voice in my soul that was waiting to be let out. I dove into singing, and even composed a Gospel song that is still part of the GAM repertoire .

In April, 2005, six of us (our choir leader, Brigitte Stumpf-Gieselmann, one choir colleague, my wife and and three other friends) travelled to New Orleans to experience the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. We attended a Southern Baptist church service, survived the first weekend of a nine day musical and cultural explosion called ‘Jazz Fest', ate exotic food, toured the swamps in a paddle boat, attended a real Louisiana barn dance and enjoyed the sunny, friendly shores of Lake Pontchartrain in the condo we had rented together. That trip, made just months prior to Hurricane Katrina, literally changed the direction of our choir. It was during that trip that the idea of organizing a Gospel Camp was formed.

Wanting to provide singers with an opportunity to learn from the best choir directors of New Orleans, I began developing the idea for a Gospel Camp. The camp should be an environment where we could learn more about the spiritual music and how it connects not only to the soul, but to the culture as well. And most importantly, the opportunity to sing Gospel!

Several months following our trip, Katrina made a visit to the Gulf coast and New Orleans, the land of dreams, was devastated. It was clear that the Gospel Camp idea would have to be put on the back burner for a while. Following my 50 th birthday in 2007, my friends and family sent me again to New Orleans. There I was saddened and disappointed by what I saw, which was a city that was a shell of its former livelihood. I had lost track with many friends who were forced to abandoned their homes and had not yet returned. Even worse, several friends became victims to Katrina's force, including my ‘adopted brother,' Kerwin James. I had pretty much given up on the idea of the camp. That is until I attended the Gospel Is Alive concert traditionally held on the Monday between the two Jazz Festival weekends. The joyful spirit of the school choirs filled my soul with hope for the city. One choir leader, Clyde Lawrence, particularly stood out in my mind. I thought then to myself that sometime in the future I would love to work with him on a project. That is soon to become a reality.

Such an idea as a Gospel Camp shouldn't be taken lightly and I began developing the idea further. In October 2009, I flew again to New Orleans and met with the ‘team' of choir leaders and my second mother, Barbara Frazier over lunch to discuss the camp idea. The biggest hurdle for us was that we could find no location to hold such a camp in a city where one of every three houses were torn down following Katrina's devestation. We managed to find a wonderful location about an hour outisde of New Orleans on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain and all agreed to go ahead with the camp. During that trip, I had a completely different experience than in 2007. The city was bubbling with new energy.You could feel it everywhere! And, most of all, I was VERY motivated to see the camp come to life!

When I returned, I was prepared to announce the camp, but found out that by offering a price including travel and lodging I now fell into the category of Travel Promoter, which requires special insurance (three different types) and a truckload of bureacracy before I could officially announce. I was finally through the bureaucratic tunnel in January and announced the camp through a campaign of email and newpaper articles. All of the Gospel web sites were very supportive as well. But with the late announcement, we didn't quite reach the minimum number of people required by the date the group travel contract requested, and it was also too few to justify the hiring of two choir leaders and the renting of the camp site for a week. I invited all of the participants to a Gospel Brunch at my house to discuss what we should do. We decided as a group that we should try it again in 2011. So here we are!

Teaming together with one of my favorite people on the planet and an awesome choir leader as well, Brigitte Stumpf-Gieselmann, we hope to bring the strengths of my event management experience together with her strengths as a music therapist and choir leader to make the Camp a great experience for all. I have sought out two of the best Gospel choir leaders in New Orleans and hope to coerce my second mom, a church organist in New Orleans to help out as well. After a long traveled road, the Camp has finally made its leap from idea to reality.