New inspirational duo at Baddour
May 23, 2001

They perform together as if they'd been performing together for many comfortable years!

Both are extraordinarily talented, David as an accomplished pianist and Gloria as a world-renown lyric soprano.

Gloria met David and The Miracles for the first time at the Kennedy Center, where The Miracles performed. Since that time, after Gloria came to live at Baddour full-time, she and The Miracles have performed countless places, including right here in Holly Springs.

They were the featured entertainment at the Marshall County Soil and Water Conservation banquet, held in April at Kirkwood.

"They were so hospitable," said Chris Antill, director of The Miracles.

David and Gloria had similar childhoods, in that they were musical prodigies.

David began to play by ear when he was five years old. By the time he was six, his mother decided that he needed to learn to play by notes, so he began taking lessons.

"I could play fairly well by the age of six," David said.

He has taken lessons from a variety of teachers over the years. One of his teachers, Mrs. Joan Broadhurst, taught classical music and while he was taking lessons from her, he performed at a festival.

"She said I did really well! She was a good teacher," David said.

David and his family lived in Birmingham at one point where he took lessons from Bernard Franklin and was told "you're near the top if you're taking from him!" He then went on to take lessons from Daniel Swords and from there to take lessons from Mr. Cranfill, Marguerite Piazza's accompanist. David also taught piano while in high school.

Today, David can play any piece of music, even the most difficult, with very little effort; he can play any song you can named and has developed unprecedented improvisational skills. He has also become a wonderful arranger of sacred, inspirational and popular music.

He has been the accompanist of The Miracles since the group was formed in 1979 and has traveled all over the United States, Mexico and Canada with them.

Gloria is a wonderful compliment to David's extraordinary skill. A world-renowned lyric soprano, she can sing in 30 languages and knows well over 2,000 songs by memory.

She began to learn to sing at the synagogue, attending with her family as a child. Her father, Dr. Howard Lenhoff, recognized her talent immediately and she began lessons around the age of 14. (Serious voice lessons are usually not begun until the voice changes.)

A lyric soprano, she has a light and airy voice and has performed all over the world.

"I went to Israel one time and did 13 concerts in one week. I performed in England and after singing two hours I had raised $800 for the church," Gloria said.

She has an agent in California and this summer is scheduled to sing at the Governor's Conference on Youth.

Both David's and Gloria's parents are very supportive of the new duo. Gloria's parents are trying to arrange voice classes for her and classical piano lessons for David, this fall at Ole Miss.

Not only is Gloria's musical ability extremely rare, her disability is also rare.

She has been diagnosed with William's Syndrome, a cousin to Down's Syndrome. Discovered in 1961, there are only about 4200 documented cases in the United States. Gloria's father, Dr. Lenhoff, is a retired bio-chemist from the University of California and is one of the leading researchers in that area.

One of the strengths of Williams Syndrome is the verbal ability and musical ability is very high with this disorder.

Gloria has perfect pitch, something that is very hard to attain. With William's Syndrome, you have the ability to develop perfect pitch your entire life.

"Gloria and David sing and play together as if they'd been together for years," said Chris Antill.

Chris, 31, is from Louisiana and has been director of The Miracles since 1999.

"I've been involved with church music all my life and have a masters from seminary in church music," he said.

After Chris applied for the director's position and was invited to the campus, it was all over for him.

"The first time we set foot on the campus we knew this was where we wanted to be," he said.

His wife Pam also works at Baddour, where "she gets to do her own thing," Chris said.

Chris delights in directing The Miracles and the duo Bravo, made up of Gloria and David.

As ambassadors for the Baddour Center, they have traveled over 15,000 miles and sing as many as 100 concerts each year, performing at The White House, The Kennedy Center, Crystal Cathedral, Marble Collegiate Church, Walt Disney World, the Superdome and in thousands of churches, schools and conferences across the North American continent.