"How many of you have problems with soloists?" she asks to widespread laughter of self-recognition. "Some people can't find one. Others have too many — too many of the ones who don't know that they can't sing."
Soft-spoken one-on-one, Douroux becomes a bold and sometimes sarcastic lecturer in public. She has the commanding presence and cadences of a preacher, a path she says she might have pursued if born a generation later and into a different church.
Her class is a highlight of the weeklong convention, which combines old-time religion with the hustle of the modern recording industry.
"People crowd into that class year after year to hear her insult them," says Douroux's friend V. Michael McKay, a successful composer. He describes her teaching as a "cleansing."
McKay recalled how he showed up at a convention a few years ago with a new look: long dreadlocks, flashy clothes and a body muscled up from weightlifting. Douroux confronted him: "You are so fine, we can't see God anymore. You're giving us too much of yourself, and we can't get to your music."
McKay said he was angry until "I realized it took a Margaret Douroux to be that honest with me." He later trimmed his hair and removed some of the other "distractions."
As Douroux tells the Dallas crowd, gospel is about praising the Lord, whether infused with the increasingly popular hip-hop beat or performed in the traditional style she favors.
"You shout because of who God is in your life," she testifies. "You shout because he kept you all week long. You shout because he kept you on the busy streets and the freeway, and you ain't seen no freeway until you get to Los Angeles."
She then gives a cue, and the organist, keyboardist and drummer hit the opening of her "I Am All I Am," a slowly paced number that takes hold and won't let go.
"I am all I am because of Christ in my life."
Douroux, arms whirling and fingers pointing, urges the singers to stretch the "ohs," climb up to the "joys." And they do, joyfully.
Earlier, she had talked again about building Gospel House — even though it already thrives in her songs and her students.
"He's my joy in time of sorrow. He's my hope for tomorrow. Oh, I am all I am…. "
Douroux begins a counterpoint solo, her raspy alto riffing over and under the tune in a style so familiar to black churches. As the song is repeated, the huge convention room begins to feel like a holy space, a real Gospel House.
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