SLU Choir Concert Presents Black American Choral Composers
University Choir and Concert Choir Performed choral pieces written by Black American composers.
Black American Choral Composers Choral Concert was a unique choral event that honored African American composers and was held by Southeastern Louisiana University’s Concert Choir and University Choir.
Every piece they performed was composed by famous African American composers and gospel writers and even included a solo instrumental and two solo vocal pieces. This event was held on May third at the First Baptist Church in Hammond.
The concert was conducted by two music teachers from Southeastern: Amy Prats who is the conductor of the University Choir and Dr. Alissa Rowe who conducted the Concert Choir.
What made this concert stand out from their previous concerts was the message that Rowe wanted to send to everyone in which she shared right before the concert began with an opening statement. Rowe explained that last summer she had learned about the killing of George Floyd and because of that she began learning more about systemic racism going on around us. As a result, she had then noticed the vast lack of recognition of black American Composers of choral music due to systemic racism within the world of the choir.
Along with her opening statement, Rowe noted, “I was disturbed to see that the majority of our Southeastern choral concert programs in the past were seriously lacking in diverse composers. Because of this, I felt like I had to do a better job at diversifying my programs from now on.”
The two choirs in total sang about 20 pieces, three solo pieces, and one choral piece with two guest performers Dr. Kristen Marchiafava soprano and Dr. Johnnie Bankens bass who sang a duet piece called “Motherless Child” by arr. Stacey V. Gibbs.
Dr. Marchiafava explained that she was honored to perform “Motherless Child” and that although she was not from that time period or race she was still able to channel the feelings of being taken away from her own family to relate to the piece and perform it well and appropriately.
Alexandra Jaeger who is one of the choral members of the Concert Choir and a student at Southeastern explained what made this event so special to her. “I learned so much about Black American composers in preparation for this event and that I greatly enjoyed the music that I sang here tonight,” said Jaeger.
She was very happy to share this kind of music because this isn’t the side of choral music that you get to see every day.
Jaeger commented, “When most people think of choral and Classical music they generally think of dead white guys, but we want to bring to light the amazing works of some famous African American composers who made these beautiful choral pieces.”
The performance was massive but the audience was small. Due to COVID restrictions, only faculty and staff, and students of Southeastern were allowed to attend the event but outsiders such as family and friends viewed the performance through KSLUs’ Facebook live stream.
It was a magnificent evening full of elegant voices and vibrant energy and beautiful pieces that reflected the beauty of Gospels and Spirituals and gave notoriety to the wonderful composers that made these masterpieces.
