Voices shall rise up during the Bermuda Mass Choir's performance this evening as they open the second night of the Bermuda Music Festival 08.

Choir director, Dainavon Tuzo, spoke to The Royal Gazette about what is expected during this year's Festival.

The Bermuda Mass Choir consists of a mixture of several denominations and a few Police officers who have been joining rehearsals.

"It is the New Testament Church of God, a few non-denomination churches, the AME Churches and the Seventh Day Adventists," he explained.

"I have a pretty good network with most of the musicians in most of our churches, so what I did was to contact the musical directors from several denominations, as they were my key contacts.

"I invited them to bring whoever they felt was suitable to come and be a part of the choir. The rest was open to those who just wanted to be a part."

The 25-year-old director says that he began singing in choirs from a very young age. "I was mostly a musician for my church and I have been playing the drum since I was two-years-old," Mr. Tuzo said.

"I am with the New Testament Church of God's Miracle Temple, although I've been playing for the Adventist Church's Inspirational Choir and Voices of Triumph for nine years now.

"I play the drums, keyboards and the organ and I am also the Island music director for the New Testament Church of God."

Mr. Tuzo also teaches choral music at Clearwater Middle School. "I keep busy, I am also a Police Reserve, so I am doing a bunch of things and keeping myself busy in the community."

Of the selections, Mr. Tuzo explained that there would be many popular Gospel songs.

"We'll be doing 'Faithful is Our God', that is a piece by Hezekiah Walker, also a song called 'Never Would Have Made It', by Marvin Sapp, which is a very recent hit of his," he said.

Of being asked back by the Festival committee, he said: "This is our second year, they invited us back.

"It went really well last year and people had been talking about it and what not, I guess it was our presentation and they wanted us to open again on the main stage and we open for Beyoncé.

"The Choir is bigger and we're going even higher and in performance, we are stepping it up a notch. Last year, we hardly had enough time to rehearse, although it was a real blessing for the people that were there. It was about 55 minutes straight and people asked, 'who was the choir?'"

Of the selection of soloists, Mr. Tuzo said: "We have Tony Robinson, John Duncan, he will be singing, and also I have Tracey Richardson, she sang 'Oh Happy Day' last year, but she has brought it up another notch.

"This year she is singing 'Never Would Have Made It' and Tony Robinson is going to close us out with a bang, I wish we had fireworks.

"I am excited about it."

Mr. Tuzo said that they also have some of the top Gospel musicians that the Island has to offer.

"We have Marvin Pitcher, he is an organist, keyboardist Conrad Roach, the drummer is Troy Washington, and Troy Seymour," he said.

"These guys are ridiculous! I guess you have to be there to see it."