It took a sharp-eared choir director to pinpoint their potential and launch them on a career as the much sought after spiritual quartet, Apex 4.

The year was 1970, and as members of the Bethel AME church male choir, Robert Symonds, Eric Whitter and brothers Harry and Gary Bean were touring churches in the New York City area when the late Leon Bean (of Smith's Parish) suggested that they form an a cappella quartet. So well received were the three tenors and one bass that they when they returned home they gave themselves a name and have been performing ever since.

Their extensive repertoire, containing a mixture of spirituals and gospel, includes age-old favourites and new material, all of which they sum up as "music with a message."

"We keep updating our repertoire because you can't go out singing the same things over and over again. In fact, every time we go out we take something new," Mr. Symonds says. "We always have a programme worked out, but you also have to read your audience. Sometimes they dictate what they want to hear, because people will request certain songs."

Whatever direction a performance takes, however, the Apex 4's mission to inspire and uplift is always accomplished.

All four men joined the Bethel AME choir as teenagers. With the exception of Mr. Symonds, who only sings in the male choir, the other three also sing in the senior choir, and all truly enjoy sharing their talents with others.

"I love the music, and being able to sing to people and watch the reaction of the audience," Mr. Symonds says. "If they can get the message we are producing, that's the main thing. Sometimes we sing to somebody who might be down and out and it lifts their whole day. That is our religious way of helping other people. It is also the difference between being a charity group and a professional rock group. With the latter you have to get your money out of it, but our pleasure comes from pleasing and helping somebody else."

Sure enough, the Apex 4 does not charge for its appearances. On foreign tours, it asks the host(s) to take care of the air fares and accommodation, the latter usually in private homes.

"We have done all sorts of benefits and church fund-raisers," Mr. Symonds says. "We have an hour's concert, with the total proceeds going to whatever the project is, and we have also done full programmes to help people develop their church with a new piano or organ, new windows, or whatever it is they need."

When a church comes to us and asks us to help, we tell them, `You get the audience and we will give you a concert'."

Despite their own religious affiliation, the quartet are ecumenical when it comes to venues, and have sung in "just about every church" on the Island, regardless of denomination. For 15 years they have been a weekly fixture on the "Willowbank" calendar, and also perform for a group which comes here every year.

"It has really been something," the lone bass, Harry Bean, says. "We have done weddings, private parties at Government House and in Tucker's Town, sung for mayors of Hamilton. We have done things for the Salvation Army, the Lions - just about all the community groups, and we also tour off-Island."

In terms of touring, Mr. Bean says the western province of Manitoba, Canada has been the quartet's biggest concert area, where they gave 13 concerts. In fact, they were so well received that they were invited to return in successive years. They have also been interviewed on Canadian television several times, and featured in newspapers wherever they appeared.

In Jamaica, they sang seven concerts in eight days.

"We took Jamaica by storm. We will never forget that tour," Mr. Symonds remembers. "They were celebrating the 250th anniversary of the First Baptist Church, and we went completely around the island singing."

At Halfway Tree, the minister of the church later admitted that, before the performance, he was genuinely afraid because he knew nothing about the APEX 4, what they would do, or how the audience would receive them, but his faith was rewarded when, after the first set, the reception was rapturous.

"In Jamaica they have a thing called bartering," Mr. Symons says. "If the audience wants to hear more, they pass the collection plate and if the money looks good you sing again. For us they passed it twice! Jamaica was a wonderful experience."

So was their participation in last year's "Bermuda Connection," sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC., where the quartet performed every day for two weeks.

"That was tremendous - one of the best things that has happened to us," Mr. Symonds says. "It was a nice experience to represent Bermuda, and every opportunity we got we plugged the Island. In fact, we have had repercussions from that already. This summer we were in Boston, singing in the Woburn area, and then a group of people to whom we sang cruised to Bermuda and we entertained them here. Lots of them had connections with Bermudians through the Lahey Clinic."

In their long career, The Apex 4 have experienced many highlights, among them singing at the 75th anniversary convention of the Kiwanis in St. Louis, Missouri, and also for Dr. Vincent Peale's conference at the Southampton Princess Hotel in 1990.

As with most successful acts, the Apex 4 have recorded two albums, `Thank You Lord' and `Speak to Me,' each of which contains songs carefully chosen to convey a special spiritual message, and with arrangements which are uniquely their own.

"Our latest, released last year, is a combination of what we were trying to do for quite a while," Mr. Symonds notes. With Dr. Robert Schuller's autumn visit to Bermuda in mind, a copy has been sent to him in California. After all, one never knows ...

While all four men hold daytime jobs, they still manage to release regularly between performances, and their professionalism also includes wearing identical outfits.

In addition to the Apex 4's history, its individuals also have interesting talents and histories.

Harry Bean was one of 19 children and says the joy of singing was inherited. His mother enjoyed being on stage both in school and at church, and his father sang in the choir. He has been singing in Bethel AME choirs since he was ten. In the 1950s and 1960s he also sang with a group called the Christian Endeavour League, which could be heard on ZBM radio on Sunday mornings.

Mr. Bean sums up his desire to sing as, "The good Lord has given me a gift and I have to use it", and says that what he likes best about performing is "making people happy and seeing the joy on their faces when we are singing".

In addition to his membership in the Apex 4, he is in greater demand as a soloist, but will only perform religious music. Among the many invitations he has fulfilled was one from Ford Foundation in Ohio, before a concert audience of 3000.

Mr. Bean is a self-employed businessman who has a distributorship. He has two children, Harry, also a bass, who sings in various church groups, and Lucy Jean, who also sings and "has a beautiful voice".

His younger brother, carpenter Gary, was not available for interview, so Mr. Bean filled in the details.

"He stuck by me as a little boy because I was much older, and he didn't know a bit of music but had a great gift. He joined the choir later than me, and today he directs the family choir at Bethel. He also plays the musical saw with a violin bow. He is by far one of the best musicians of the group as far as I am concerned."

Robert Symonds has been a member of the Bethel AME male choir since he was a teenager. He once studied the saxophone, and worked steadily as rock and roll singer in a duet. A salesman by day, he too loves witnessing the joy the quartet's singing generates in an audience.

Lead tenor Eric Whitter was born into a musical family and has always been involved in the church. He studied music, and continues to study the organ. In fact, he is the organist for Bethel's 8 a.m. service. He also sings in the senior and male choirs. Like his fellow singers, he thrives on the joy of singing to others.

"The audience is what makes you," he says. "Sometimes you just put it in His hands and let Him deal with it."

Children are his favourite audience, and he particularly enjoys having them join the quartet on stage.

The manager of the East Broadway Shell Station by day, Mr. Whitter loves singing, and really looks forward to the rehearsals, not least because he cherishes his long friendship with the other singers.

"We are so close that if I hurt we all hurt," he says.

He has a 16-year-old granddaughter who seems to be following somewhat in his footsteps, although not musically.

"She just preached her first sermon," he says proudly, "so I guess it's rubbing off somewhere."

As for their future, the Apex 4 are also in close harmony: As long as the good Lord agrees, they plan to continue singing and singing.