The world-renowned Atlanta Boy Choir is making a pit stop in Selma for a special concert before heading south west to New Orleans for its New Year’s performance.

The famous choir will perform at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Dec. 30 at 7 p.m., and rector Jack Alvey hopes to have a packed house.

“We’re very excited. It’s an incredible opportunity for St. Paul’s to be able to host this choir event,” Alvey said. “One of St. Paul’s trademarks is welcome and hospitality, and this is a way we get to do that.”

The group, which was founded in 1959 by maestro Fletcher Wolfe, is made up of 40 boys and 20 men. They will be joined in Selma by opera singer India Thomas and famous pianist, Dr. Robert Henry.

“It’s an incredible honor that they are stopping through Selma on the way to their New Year’s Day concert,” Alvey said. “

Alvey said the performance is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy left a lasting mark on Selma during the voting rights movement. But he also hopes the performance will serve as inspiration.

“The legacy of Martin Luther King in Selma is a big one, so this is a way that we can continue to pay tribute to that and we’re thankful to be able to do that,” he said. “It’s also a great platform to tell people why a Selma children’s choir is important, so we’re excited about that as well.”

Alvey is on a board that is working on putting together a children’s choir in Selma, and hopes the community will see the power of music and work to help make that vision come to fruition.

“I think something like this will hopefully inspire the community to want to see something like that in Selma,” he said. “Music is such a great way to bring people together across whatever lines that are put up between ourselves, and speak to a higher truth that God has laid out for us.”

Alvey said the choir is already in the works, and hopefully this concert will help inspire people to get involved.

“We’re currently recruiting second and third graders, and eventually we’ll build on that, and it will include more ages,” he said.

“We are shooting for a first rehearsal for that choir for Sunday, Jan. 22 at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s.”

The concert is free of charge, and Alvey said he invites anyone interested in hearing the choir to come out.