It was one day in prison, while serving a two-year sentence, that John Malveaux finally reconciled with the Catholic Church.

"I realized I had been given a wonderful education in Catholic schools and I recalled the saying, 'If you educate a man, you can't keep him a slave'," the 66-year-old St. Anthony (Long Beach) Church parishioner told The Tidings.

Today, the classically-trained musician --- a former businessman in the entertainment industry who many years ago broke with the Catholic Church and later turned to drugs --- is a member of the Knights of Columbus who promotes classical music with a renewed strength.

On June 13 a mostly volunteer orchestra and choir performed the 1976 "Bicentennial Symphony," a controversial piece composed by the late American composer Roy Harris, a former Juilliard School of Music teacher, with whom Malveaux established a close friendship in the late 1970s. It was only the second time the piece had been performed since its debut by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.

For John Malveaux, it was a moment that seemed like it might never arrive. But then, he feels blessed to have been able to make it happen, given that he had once all but given up on music, faith and, very nearly, life.

Beginnings
Initially, music was Malveaux's ticket to a better life. Born in Beaumont, Texas, to a devout African American Catholic family of many generations, he attended Blessed Sacrament School, a segregated K-12 Catholic school which instilled in him the love for education, arts and music.

During his last two years at Blessed Sacrament, before moving to Long Beach with his family, he played the French horn and gained a taste for classical music. But soon after landing in California, Malveaux, known in his teenage years and early adulthood as John Champion (his stepfather's last name), started becoming undisciplined and lapsing in study habits.

He was ahead of his public school classmates, his mother and stepfather worked long hours, parents' supervision diminished. He still kept his good grades and got involved in sports, but he left music behind, though he learned to play the saxophone in junior high.

As he grew up, he became more aware of the racial differences and started having confrontations with white people. This led to community activism, which later led him to research what he calls "Catholic Church complicity with slavery and segregation." He became contemptuous and decided not to practice Catholicism as he had learned it.

At his mother's insistence, he enrolled in college, earning a business degree from Pepperdine University in 1968. Upon graduating he pursued careers in banking and insurance, but his interest was in the entertainment business. While in school he had been successful promoting concerts for Motown Review artists, including 1978 Grammy winner Thelma Houston (who has recently supported him with the Bicentennial Symphony promotion).

"Entertainment reinforced my existentialism," Malveaux said. "I thought I was in control."

It was during this time that he met Roy Harris and other artists as Ray Charles and Little Richard. His career was initially successful, but it did not last long. In 1979 Malveaux signed a contract to promote a tribute to Harris as a fundraiser for the U.S. Olympic Committee; that turned sour when President Jimmy Carter decided to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.

The decision was emotionally devastating for Malveaux, who suffered a nervous breakdown; he had invested a lot of money and now he found himself jobless. A few months later he was introduced to crack cocaine by a friend, which set the pace for the next two decades in his life.

He ended up in Soledad State Prison, accused of receiving stolen goods and using drugs. By this time he had married twice and had three children. The two years he spent in prison gave him enough time to review his life and his relationship with God and the Church.

A change in philosophy
"I concluded that my philosophy of 'I'm the master and captain of my ship' had proven itself incorrect," he admitted. He embraced the faith he had renounced and gradually regained the love for his Catholic roots.

And, along with that, his interest in classical music. A close friend of the Roy Harris family for more than 30 years, he worked toward getting the "Bicentennial Symphony" performed in a public venue. Because of his friendship with the Harris family, Malveaux was granted by Harris' widow Johana performance and promotional rights to the symphony.

His effort culminated in the recent "Juneteenth Celebration of the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln" at Martin Luther King Park in Long Beach. Conductor Joseph R. Taylor, associate conductor of the Bellflower Symphony, and choral director Zanaida Robles, director of classical choirs of the Los Angeles High School of the Arts, answered Malveaux's invitation to present the musical piece to the public for the second time in 33 years. (Its debut by the National Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Murry Sidlin, currently the dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at Catholic University of America.)

The piece --- a six-part chorus and orchestra work, with solo voices and speakers --- is considered a strong musical statement on U.S. history and race relations. It was never recorded and its sheet music was not available to the public.

Robles said she was attracted by the piece's historical aspects. "It is provocative and it challenges the audience," Robles told The Tidings. "It needs to be embraced and included in Harris' catalogue."

The approximately half-hour-long piece was supposed to be Harris' No. 13 symphony, but he numbered it as Symphony No. 14 out of superstition over the number 13. It was re-numbered posthumously as No. 13 by author Dan Stehman with the permission of the composer's widow.

Malveaux, who made sure that the piece was recorded during the Juneteenth celebration, hopes to "convince" a major orchestra to conduct a performance at an indoor venue.

"We are extremely grateful to him for doing this," Paddie Harris-Connelly, the eldest of Harris' five children, told The Tidings. "He is a person who thinks ahead of his time, a very spiritual and loyal person" she said.

Aside from his efforts to promote the Bicentennial Symphony to a higher level, Malveaux has another project in hand: A future concert featuring the liturgical music of José Mauricio Nunez Garcia (1767-1830), a grandson of slaves, who was the sole Afro-Brazilian composer and organist during the Brazilian colonial period.

He is considering turning the promotion of classical music, especially by African American composers, into a formal spiritual mission, following the suggestion of Bishop Gordon Bennett, whom he met at a recent Loyola Marymount University conference.

For more information about the Bicentennial Symphony, go to www.musicuntold.com.