Congressman Charles Rangel paid tribute to Harlem Boys Choir founder Walter Turnbull with the following statement in the Congressional Record:

Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise today to remember my dear friend, Walter Turnbull, who passed away from cancer last week at the age of 62.

When the world thinks of Harlem, they often think of physical structures, like the Apollo, Abyssinian Church or Sylvia's Restaurant. However, they also think about the people, those whose tireless efforts remind them of the brilliance of this diverse community.

For more than 30 years, the Boys Choir (and later the Girls Choir) of Harlem has personified that brilliance in both song and in service. Walter Turnbull was the principal force behind that vision, the choir's founder and up to the day he died, its artistic director.

Born in Greenville, Mississippi, he came to New York after college to pursue a music career that would soon feature solo concerts with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Yet it was working on his doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music that he thought to establish a music program for local children. The after-school program that started in the basement of the Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1968 soon grew to be include more than 150 young men that regularly traveled the world, performing everywhere from the White House to the Vatican.

Walter himself was honored numerous times, both locally and nationally. Yet the awards were nothing compared to the satisfaction that he took from giving young people an education that went beyond the notes and bars of the song sheet. They were introduced to a rigorous curriculum that not only taught them an appreciation for everything from classical opera to contemporary jazz and R&B, but also science, math, history and English.

Despite the celebrity status that sometimes followed these young men and women, education always remained the priority. No matter how far from home they performed, Walter made sure to send along their schoolbooks, and when necessary, their academic tutors. That commitment did not disappoint, resulting in high school graduation rate of more than 95 percent and attendance at some of the nation's most prominent universities.

I am blessed to say that I saw Walter often, most recently this past January, directing the Boys Choir at the community celebration of my 19th Congressional term and appointment to the Chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. As always, the choir was flawless in its task of jazzing up the crowd. So was Walter, helping these young men rise to the challenge of doing their best for more than a thousand guests in the Great Hall of City College.

Walter's death is significant one, the loss of an artistic giant who was always there for me and the community. I am sure that my colleagues join me in extending our condolences and prayers to the Turnbull family. Words, of course, cannot replace the pain that his family and friends are feeling right now. However, they should take comfort that he left us all a wonderful musical legacy, one that we will always remember as long as the voices of Harlem sing strong.

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