Arkadelphia song minister refuses to stay silent after tracheostomy

FINDING HIS VOICE — Despite a life-altering tracheostomy, professional singer Marque Black refused to give up. The music minister of a local church sat down with The Arkadelphian to talk about his struggles and how he redeemed a second chance at singing. Courtesy photo

By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com

Twice a week, Marque Black leads the congregation of Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Arkadelphia in song. Given that he lives with a permanent tracheostomy tube in his throat, how he is able to sing at all is nothing short of a miracle.

The professional singer — whose four-decade career includes performances with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the Arkansas Opera Theater — spent two months in a medically induced coma after contracting Covid-19 in 2021.

After a month on a ventilator, doctors performed a tracheostomy. For Black, an operatic tenor, the procedure meant he would likely never again warble the classical repertoire he had spent a lifetime mastering.

When he woke from the coma, the emotional shock of realizing the procedure’s permanence was sharper than the physical recovery. Simple daily tasks — breathing, talking, eating, showering — became strange, difficult hurdles.

Hoping to breathe more easily and regain his range, Black underwent surgery at the Vanderbilt Voice Center in Nashville,Tennessee, to remove scar tissue around his vocal cords. But the procedure couldn’t restore what was lost; his airway remained narrowed, his voice permanently altered.

“In that recovery room, the future I had imagined returning to — standing on a stage, singing with ease — slipped away,” Black recalls. “The silence that followed was heavier than any note I could no longer reach.”

Yet he persevered. Singing was more than a career; it was his way of belonging to the world.

Back to the Microphone

After six months of intensive rehabilitation, Black returned to the pulpit, leading worship for a congregation of 350 at Spring Creek Baptist Church in Benton, where he served as music minister. He could no longer reach his former register; his partially fused vocal cords simply couldn’t withstand the air pressure he once exerted.

“I felt very self-conscious,” Black says. “I was grateful to be able to sing again, but also embarrassed because expectations were high. The people I was singing in front of had prayed that God would spare my life, and in my mind, they were waiting to hear the old Marque. I almost felt like I needed to apologize for not meeting my own professional standards.”

Within weeks of his return, Black faced an even bigger test: leading worship in front of a 2,000-person crowd at a national church convention.

Though he candidly admits his physical singing capacity is only a fraction of what it was before the tracheostomy, a lifetime of formal vocal technique allows him to maximize what remains.

“To my ears, it will never compare to the voice I lost,” he says. “But when I sing, people tell me they can still hear my heart. That is what matters most.”

His faith kept him moving forward. “When God calls you to do something, He doesn’t say, ‘I’m sorry, I messed up.’ He doesn’t un-call those He’s called.”

A Second Chance

Black continued leading the Benton congregation for three years following his surgery before accepting the role of music minister at Arkadelphia’s Faith Missionary Baptist Church in January 2026.

By all conventional metrics, his vocal career should have ended in the ICU. Instead, his ongoing ministry stands as a testament that physical limits do not dictate purpose.

“God’s not finished with you yet,” Black says. “When you get sick, you don’t just lay down and die. You fight. Trust in God’s plan, because God’s in control. Learn, if you’re able, what God is trying to teach you through adversity.”

Standing at the microphone today in Arkadelphia, Black sees this chapter not as a compromise, but as a renewal.

“My voice was never just my vocal cords,” he says. “My voice, all along, was in my heart and my soul.”

Telling human interest stories is part of The Arkadelphian’s community journalism objective. If you or someone you know have had a once-in-a-lifetime experience worth sharing with our readers, drop us a line by emailing editor@arkadelphian.com.