For the Contra Costa Times
Posted: 07/01/2013 12:00:00 PM PDT

Silvester Henderson has been known as "Mr. Gospel" since 1990, when someone came up with that nickname and it stuck.

然而，总有一天，人们会开始称他为“格莱美先生”。

The Pleasanton resident is a quarterfinalist in the inaugural Grammy 音乐 Educator Award, designed "to bring attention to the excellent and impactful work being done by thousands of music teachers across the U.S."

Henderson, a music professor at Pittsburg's Los Medanos College who has also taught at San Francisco State and UC Berkeley, is one of about 200 to make it this far in the Grammy vote. 最初的候选名单包括3万多名提名者。

该奖项有1万美元的酬金，但这并不是让亨德森如此兴奋的原因。

"My goal is not for me to gain money," says Henderson, who is also the longtime music pastor at Palma Ceia Baptist Church in Hayward. "My goal is to impact and affect the lives of young people."

瑞恩·穆顿-摩尔（Ryan Mouton-Moore）就是其中一名年轻人，他于2009年进入洛斯梅达诺斯大学。

“我这辈子从来没唱过歌，”他说。 "But he really pushed me to throw myself into the fire. 这让我处于一个很好的位置。”

Henderson says the Grammy recognition will shine a light on his crusade to promote education through the arts. In particular, he sees music as a gateway for at-risk students to pursue higher learning.

He's lived that theory, growing up in East Oakland and avoiding trouble by keeping himself busy with music, often spending as much as eight hours a day practicing piano.

"I had this compulsive, undying passion for classical piano and gospel," Henderson says. “音乐就像我的女朋友。 古典和福音就像我的人际关系。 他们给了我生命的意义。”

Gospel had his heart, but classical music stimulated his mind, with its formality, structure and scholarly nature. What Henderson really wanted, though, was to approach gospel in the same fashion as classical. He enrolled at San Francisco State, eventually earning a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's in choral conducting. 1984年，23岁的他被学校音乐系聘用。

"(That) is really where I feel like my life began," says Henderson, who was married with two children by then. “当我刚开始教书时，我每个月挣641.30美元。 我当时（经济上）很困难。 但我不想放弃我的梦想。” He spent 10 years there, followed by 20 years teaching music and African-American studies at UC Berkeley.

Henderson says San Francisco State felt "like being part of a family," while UC Berkeley "was really where I had to sink or swim." Part of his reaction was founding the Young Inspiration Gospel Choir in 1985. The chorus drew huge crowds at such venues as Zellerbach Hall, toured internationally and recorded albums, and was crowned by the Smithsonian Institution as "the finest university gospel choir in the nation." Henderson was fulfilling his dream.

亨德森知道，为了实现他的其他目标，他必须冒险走出教室。

他说：“作为一名教育工作者，你不会变得富有。” "That's where real estate came in."

亨德森开始投资房地产。 His company -- naturally -- is Mr. Gospel Properties, and his home in an upscale gated community in Pleasanton is testament to his success.

“我被认为是一个非常努力的人，”他说。 “我为了这个家拼了命地工作。”

Still, teaching -- 澳门威尼斯人网上赌场 has since taken him to Pittsburg and the music faculty at Los Medanos College -- remains his greatest passion.

"We were really smart people to hire him," says professor Erma Smith, who was on the committee that interviewed him.

亨德森在那里的激情继续激励着我。

Take his student Mouton-Moore, who came Los Medanos in 2009 with no singing experience, landed a music scholarship at San Francisco State and earned his degree in music this year, the first in his family to graduate from college.

“他在我的生活中扮演了重要的角色，”23岁的里士满居民穆顿-摩尔说。 “他的一句名言是，‘生活就像发条一样。 If you succeed at one thing, go on to the next thing. 必须有秩序。”

Silvester Henderson
Age: 52
回家town: Grew up in Oakland; lives in Pleasanton
Occupation: Gospel music professor at Los Medanos College
Milestone: Quarterfinalist for the inaugural Grammy 音乐 Educator Award
Quote: "I strongly believe that, in all you do, education is the most important thing."