Life Crisis Leads Him to Sing a New Song

When Paul McNeff, 45, lost his job two years ago as director of choral ministries at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, his wife, Beverly, asked him: “What do you really want to do?”

My wife and I have often discussed the crisis facing the McNeffs. What happens when you’re in your 40s and suddenly find yourself unemployed? It would be scary for anyone. The answer McNeff gave his wife was gritty and courageous.

“He said he wanted to go work on his dream, to create his own choir,” Beverly McNeff told me.

Today, the 35-member Paul McNeff Singers are a bona fide local hit. The nonprofit group gives several concerts each season--from church music to patriotic numbers to Broadway tunes. Busiest of all, however, is the choir’s outreach ensemble.

Each Tuesday, the 14-member group performs for Orange County schools, often at one school in the morning and another in the afternoon. This morning, they’re performing their 45-minute show at the Madison Elementary School in Santa Ana.

The songs of the Paul McNeff Singers ensemble are American traditional with a little Disney thrown in to keep the youngsters interested. I heard them recently at Roosevelt Elementary School in Santa Ana and had to smile when they did “Old Dan Tucker.” I hadn’t heard that one since my own school days.

Other numbers such as “Buffalo Gals” and “Zippity-Doo-Dah” were huge hits with this young crowd. My own favorite was “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast.”

Ensemble members, an equal number of men and women, wear white shirts or blouses with colorful vests and bring along a prop or two, such as cowboy hats.

I knew they were going over well when the group sang “Colors of the Wind” from the movie “Pocahontas” with a sign language accompaniment led by member Pamela Land, and not only the students but teachers too were doing the signing for the wind and the colors.

Beverly McNeff is the group’s emcee. (Youngsters roar with laughter when she tells them “That stands for Mrs. Cool.”) You wouldn’t know that Paul McNeff was anything special if the group weren’t named after him. He’s simply one of the performers, a low-key presence. It’s obvious when you watch him that he does this because he loves it, not because he wanted to build a group around himself.

All the performers are introduced by first name, and I doubt any of the youngsters there even knew he was the group’s leader.

McNeff does a lot more than sing, of course. He pounds the pavement searching for every possible private grant to keep his group going. Finding the actual singers turned out to be the easiest part. Several singers knew either Paul or Beverly from church or previous small musical associations, and word of mouth from those people brought other qualified singers in.

“I can tell you why I joined the group,” ensemble member Tom Short said after the Roosevelt performance. “I wanted to give something back. We get so much out of seeing these kids’ excited faces.”

Many school arts budgets took a hit after the county’s bankruptcy. The irony, as Beverly McNeff sees it, is that students need more of the arts, not less: “There is no substitute for joy. That’s why we’re here.”

For Paul McNeff, the past two years have been a whirlwind. To help his income, he’s also now music director at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana, and executive director of the national Choral Conductors Guild.

Looking back now, he sees that losing the Crystal Cathedral job--due to budget cuts--was a positive turning point.

“It was a crisis in our lives,” he said. “But instead of looking at it as devastating, we decided to look at the upside, at what opportunities it presented.”

For the McNeffs, the upside just keeps getting better.

Pelican Brief: The rain in Oklahoma on Sunday was a huge disappointment to me. It pushed the final round of the PGA Tour championship into Monday. And that meant we wouldn’t get to see former local golf hero Mark O’Meara at Monday’s Boy Scout fund-raiser outing at Pelican Hill Golf Club along the Newport Coast.

When I first came to The Times 17 years ago, I mentioned to my editors that O’Meara, from Mission Viejo, had just won the U.S. Amateur and was about to embark on his rookie year on the pro tour.

I think my knees almost gave out when the assignment editor suggested: Why didn’t I just head on up to the Monterey Peninsula and follow O’Meara at the tour stop there. Pebble Beach, Cypress, Spyglass--those Monterey courses conjure up visions of heaven to any golfer. And O’Meara was a good guy to interview. At the time, he seemed still a little worried whether he had the game to make it on the tour.

It’s been fun to watch him over the years. He never became a tour superstar, like Greg Norman, or now Tiger Woods. But O’Meara has become one of golf’s richest players, with well over $1 million in earnings this year alone.

O’Meara, who now lives with his wife and children in Florida, was to give a clinic at Pelican Hill just prior to the amateur event for the Boy Scouts. But the rains in Tulsa forced the pros to stay there to finish the final round Monday. O’Meara picked up another $58,800, so surely the Boy Scouts understand.

Time for Others: A few months ago my wife and I sat at a dinner next to a dynamic couple, Michele and Lee Lescano, both captains in the Salvation Army. He’s the Orange County administrator, she’s the staff liaison and does just about everything under the sun there. Now she’s inviting you to join their cause before the beginning of the busy Christmas season of helping needy families.

The Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary is holding its membership drive, as well as a holiday crafts fair, today at its headquarters at 10200 Pioneer Road (near Jamboree Road, not far from the Tustin Marketplace.)

Michele Lescano says there’s a membership meeting at 10:30 a.m., where new members can get an idea what kind of work the Salvation Army church does. The crafts fair starts at noon and runs all day. Professional crafters will display goods, but Lescano says the most popular items at this annual event “are usually things made by members of our church.”

Wrap-Up: There’s a new Paul McNeff group about to come along. The Paul McNeff Singers is creating a Paul McNeff KidSingers group, made up of youngsters between the third and sixth grades.

“Studies show that music not only enhances children’s learning abilities, but also provides a valuable source of self expression and esteem,” Paul McNeff says.

If you think your child might be interested--or you want the Paul McNeff Singers to come perform--you can call them at (714) 525-SING.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com