Let the Church Roll On Westminster Jubilee Singers Vinroy D. Brown, Jr., conductor G. Preston Wilson, Jr., conductor Akiko Hosaki, piano Samar Newsome, piano Anthony Ware, Jr., saxophone Jon Smith, bass Daniel Ware, drums
Sunday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m. Gill Memorial Chapel Rider University 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, NJ
Program I Breathe on Me, Breath of God
J. T. Rees arr. Haydn Morgan
Rockin’ Jerusalem
arr. John W. Work Olivia Dixon, soprano
I’ll Never Turn Back No Mo’
arr. Hall Johnson Zyheim Bell, bass
Precious Lord
Thomas A. Dorsey arr. Arnold Sevier
Steal Away
arr. Dennis Eliot Julia Wilder, soprano
Glorious is the Name of Jesus
Robert Fryson arr. Jason M. Ferdinand
A Mighty Fortress
Martin Luther/Arr. Phillip K. Jones, II Abbey Ritter, soprano
II Praise Ye the Lord
Scott Cumberbatch
The Lord Will Take Care of You
Glenn Jones Max Brey, baritone
And He Blessed My Soul
Anita Watkins-Stevens G. Preston Wilson, Jr., tenor
I Shall Wear A Crown Total Praise
Thomas Whitfield trans. Brandon Waddles Richard Smallwood
PROGRAM NOTES Breathe on Me, Breath of God serves as a gentle invocation to our program. While the welsh tune Pen Park on which the hymn is based may be simple, the traditional harmonization takes an unexpected twist in the very first phrase. The tune in the soprano lands on an F natural, the seventh scale degree in Gb major, and one would expect to hear that F harmonized with a Db major chord, a typical half cadence. Instead, the choir sings Bb major, with the F natural acting as the fifth. This mediant relationship is a favorite technique of the 20th century, and lends a mysticism to this arrangement appropriate for a hymn to the Holy Ghost. Arranger Haydn Morgan adds gentle embellishments in the form of flowing lines against the tune in the second and third voices. Rockin’ Jerusalem’s arranger, John W. Work III, was part of a generation of Black musicians in the early 20th century that was the first to break into the elite institutions of academic music, beginning a process of integration that is still ongoing. His father was a professor of music at Fisk University, and arranged for the Fisk Jubilee Singers that inspired our Westminster Jubilee SIngers. After studying at Fisk, John Work III studied at what would be later renamed the Juilliard school and went on to receive a graduate degree from Columbia and later another degree from Yale. He returned to Nashville to teach at Fisk and continued arranging and composing, in addition to his scholarship on African American folk music. Rockin’ Jerusalem is a staple of the Fisk Jubilee Singers repertoire. I’ll Never Turn Back No Mo’ has been heard numerous times at Jubilee Singers concerts over the years. Its plodding but persistent rhythm depicts an arduous journey forward, while the text asserts a determination to keep one’s head up and eyes on the prize, so to speak. The final refrain is sung without words, expressing a sentiment better felt than spoken. Hall Johnson, the piece’s arranger, led a diverse career. While he is best known today as a composer and arranger, he started out as a gigging violinist and violist in New York City. He later founded the Hall Johnson Choir, which was featured in numerous early Disney films (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Dumbo, Song of the South.) Out of the 3,000 songs Thomas A. Dorsey wrote over the course of his career, Precious Lord is certainly his best loved. Dorsey is credited with creating modern gospel music, and began a process of intermingling secular sounds in church music that continues to propel gospel music forward. Dorsey led a successful career as a blues pianist, writing songs for King Oliver among others, but after being lifted from a deep depression in 1928 he vowed to focus his efforts on gospel music. While his secular influences were rejected by church leaders in the beginning, his music began to take root in Chicago and across the Midwest. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Black migrants from the South arrived in midwestern cities, bringing with them an appreciation for the Blues music that influenced Dorsey’s new gospel sound. It was during this period of success that Dorsey’s wife died in childbirth, and his newborn son less than 24 hours later. Out of this intense grief comes Precious Lord, which continues to soothe those who are grieving nearly one hundred years later. Like many spirituals, Steal Away juxtaposes the trials of the present with hope for the future. This intimate arrangement by Dennis Eliot presents the refrain of the spiritual in hushed tones, modestly ornamented with descending modal borrowings. In contrast, when “the trumpet sounds within-a my soul,” the choir’s timbre shifts entirely, announcing the arrival of that brighter day.
Glorious is the Name of Jesus comes to us by way of the Oakwood Aeolians, until recently led by Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand who now teaches at the University of Maryland. The arrangement begins in the lower part of the voice for all four sections, evoking the mystical power of the name of Jesus. As the text switches to the first person the tessitura rises in kind, climaxing on a refrain that climbs ever higher, inversion after inversion, in true gospel style. A Mighty Fortress is Our God rides the line between “idiomatic” (spiritual, jazz, blues) and “non-idiomatic” Black sacred music. Martin Luther’s iconic Ein feste Burg is accompanied by, in the words of the arranger Phillip K. Jones II, a “contemporary gospelized” piano part and a powerfully voiced and often thorny choral harmonization. One can clearly hear the influence of Adolphus Hailstork, one of the great contributors to the Black choral literature and another composer who blurs the line between the idiomatic and nonidiomatic. Our gospel set features five contrasting selections from across the gospel repertoire. Not unlike A Mighty Fortress, Praise Ye the Lord by Scott Cumberbatch is a blend of neo-classical and gospel styles. Notice the flourishes in the piano and stately ornaments at cadences in the choir. The chain of ascending key changes in the refrain lend a rousing gospel energy to the piece. The Lord Will Take Care of You is in a classic gospel style, written almost entirely with 2nd inversion chords and a soloist. Notice the thirds are sometimes major and sometimes flattened, a technique derived from Blues music. And He Blessed My Soul is the most recently composed of the five. It starts slow, with lots of room for interplay between the soloist and the piano, and gradually gains momentum towards a series of climactic inversions of the upper three voices. Two Jubilee classics close the set. Thomas Whitfield’s I Shall Wear a Crown, transcribed and arranged by former Jubilee singer and conductor Brandon Waddles, carries on in the tradition of Thomas A. Dorsey by bringing developments in Black popular music into the church. The colorful harmonies of Whitfield’s writing paved the way for modern gospel music that remains in dialogue with secular styles. Finally, the iconic anthem Total Praise. The text is an amalgamation of several snippets of scripture, but with a constant theme of lifting - eyes, hands, and voices - up to God. Listen as the voices climb up through the opening chorale to the climactic amen. That amen, repeated 8 times, is reminiscent of another Westminster staple, The Lord Bless You and Keep You. Likewise, it’s rare not to hear Total Praise at the tail end of Jubilee’s program.
About the Artists WESTMINSTER JUBILEE SINGERS Composed of students selected by audition, the Westminster Jubilee Singers is modeled after the historically acclaimed Fisk Jubilee Singers. Its repertoire, while specialized and select, is very diverse and focuses on solo and ensemble artistic expressions from its singers. Part of Westminster Choir College’s Sacred Music Department, the ensemble performs literature that includes African-American spirituals and folk songs; classical music by African-American composers; gospel music and secular songs by musical greats such as William Dawson, Duke Ellington, Walter Hawkins, Andraé Crouch, Richard Smallwood, Kirk Franklin and Dr. Nathan Carter, as well as Westminster graduates, Rosephanye Powell, Donald Dillard and M. Roger Holland. Also explored and performed are works by non-African-American composers, including George Gershwin, Alice Parker, Robert Shaw, Robert Page, Gail Poch, Steve Pilkington and others who have composed and/or arranged music of the African-American experience. In addition to its rich repertoire of African-American spirituals, hymn arrangements and gospel songs, the Westminster Jubilee Singers has performed classical works, such as And They Lynched Him On a Tree by William Grant Still and Shout for Joy and I Will Lift Up My Eyes by Adolphus Hailstork. Highlights of last season includes performing Rosephanye Powell’s The Cry of Jeremiah with the Mansfield Philharmonic in Dallas, Texas for the Convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc., hosting the inaugural Celebration of Black Music, and performing in Princeton for the 30th Anniversary Broadcast of An Evening of Readings & Carols. The ensemble’s 2023-2024 season included concerts in Lawrenceville, participation in An Evening of Readings and Carols in Princeton, and in concert with Kevin Maynor at the Paul Roberson House of Princeton. Previous seasons have included appearances at the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in Kansas City and Regional Conference in Baltimore; the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Eastern Regional Convention in Boston; a performance with Denyce Graves at New York’s Apollo Theater to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Children’s Defense Fund; a joint concert entitled Living the Dream with Penn State University’s Essence of Joy ensemble as a tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and its Lincoln Center debut performing in An Evening of Choral Artistry, presented by the American Choral Directors Association. The ensemble has performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra, under the baton of Skitch Henderson, in a concert version of Porgy and Bess. At the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, Westminster Jubilee Singers presented joint concerts with the Fisk University Jubilee Singers and the legendary Sweet Honey in the Rock.
VINROY D. BROWN, JR., CONDUCTOR Vinroy D. Brown, Jr. holds credits in conducting, sacred music and music education. He is a member of the performance studies faculty at Westminster Choir College, where he conducts the Westminster Jubilee Singers and teaches in the Baccalaureate Honors Program. He was most recently a Lecturer of Music in the College of Communication & Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University where he developed their inaugural course in music and social justice. A church musician, he is director of music and worship arts at Elmwood United Presbyterian Church. Maintaining an active conducting schedule, he is founder and
artistic director of Elmwood Concert Singers and is artistic director and conductor of Capital Singers of Trenton. An active conductor, Brown recently conducted the Mansfield Philharmonic, the Voices of Houston and the Westminster Jubilee Singers in a performance of Rosephanye Powell’s The Cry of Jeremiah at the Convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians in Dallas, Texas. He also conducted the Newark Public Schools Vocal Jubilee at the historic Newark Symphony Hall and the CJMEA Region II Intermediate Treble Chorus last academic year. This season, he will serve as Guest Conductor of the New Jersey All Shore High School Chorus, headline the Tenor-Bass Choral Festival at Rowan University and conduct the Rowan University Concert Choir in performance. Most notably, Brown served as Chorus Conductor for the world premiere performances of Omar by Rihannon Giddens and Michael Abels, which received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music. His scholarship elevates the music of the Black experience, women, and living composers, and explores the ways in which music can be used as a tool for social justice and anti-racism in diverse learning communities. He is published in the Choral Journal of the American Choral Directors Association, and is a Contributing Author of Choral Repertoire by Women Composers, to be released this academic year. Brown is also the curator of the Black Psalmody Database, the first compendium of choral settings of the Psalter by Black composers. Professor Brown has presented for the National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, National Collegiate Choral Organization, New Jersey Education Association and for Virginia, Georgia, Illinois and Maryland Music Education Association Conferences. This academic year he will present the music of William Dawson for the Bent But Not Broken Conference in honor of his sesquicentennial, headline the New York American Choral Directors Association Fall Conference and return to the New Jersey ACDA for the Voices United Choral Festival. He has lectured at the University of Miami, Millikin University, Kutztown University, Princeton University, Yale University, Rowan University, The University of Delaware and The College of New Jersey. Professor Brown holds membership in the National Association for Music Education, National Alliance of Black School Educators, American Choral Directors Association, International Society for Black Musicians, National Collegiate Choral Organization and the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc., for which he is Eastern Region Director and Chief Editor of EMERGENCE: Research & Performance Topics in Black Music, a scholarly publication which will be released this year. Brown is also a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, Inc. He holds the Master of Arts in Practical Theology degree from Regent University, and Bachelor of Music degrees in Sacred Music and Music Education from Westminster Choir College.
G. PRESTON WILSON, JR., CONDUCTOR G. Preston Wilson, Jr., PhD is a native of Durham, NC where he attended the public school system, and his love of music was cultivated. He received his Bachelors of Science in Music Education from Fisk University in Nashville, TN in 2010. During his matriculation, he was a member of the world-renowned, GRAMMY® and Dove award winning Fisk Jubilee Singers® under the direction of the late Dr. Paul T. Kwami. The ensemble also was awarded the National Medal of the Arts, the highest artistic honor in the nation from the National Endowment for the Arts and presented by President George Bush. He was blessed to
accompany the Jubilee Singers to Ghana and Spain in the summer of 2007 and was featured on the recording project, Sacred Journey. After graduating from Fisk, Dr. Wilson earned a Masters of Music in Choral Music Education from Bowling Green State University, where he was awarded the Winifred O. Stone Graduate Fellowship, being named the Presidential Graduate Scholar. After graduation from BGSU, Dr. Wilson began teaching at various schools in the Toledo Public School systems. His longest stay was at Start High School where he oversaw five choral ensembles, the school dance team, and an advisor for the African American Culture Club. He was also the vocal coach and codirector for the Toledo Youth Choir: a community youth ensemble; and taught voice and piano for The Mustard Seed Academy of Arts. Dr. Wilson additionally served on the Music Ministry at Friendship Baptist Church, under the leadership of Bishop Duane C. Tisdale. There he functioned as the principal accompanist for the ministry, directed the Youth and Young choir, and worship leader for district and state Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship events. In June of 2021, Dr. Wilson graduated from the University of Missouri (Columbia), obtaining a PhD in Music Education. He successfully defended his dissertation entitled, Successful Urban Elementary Music Educators: A Phenomenological Investigation; which focuses on the lived experiences of urban music teachers in elementary schools. In 2021 he was awarded the prestigious Mizzou 18 Award, given to selected graduate students for their world-class research, collaboration with faculty and staff, and their demonstrated leadership with undergraduate students. As an active researcher, he has published in journals such as TEMPO, official magazine of the New Jersey Music Educators Association. He also has contributed chapters in A Music Pedagogy for Our Time: Conversation and Critique; If Colors Could be Heard They’d Paint Wondrous Tunes: Narratives about Music Education, Race, Ethnicity, and Identity; and You Hear US Knocking BUT Won't Let US In: Voices, Reflections and Practices on Diversity Equity and Inclusion. He boasts research presentations at the Feminist Theory and Music Conference at the University of Guelph, Canada; the International Society for the Sociology of Music Education at the University of Veracruz; and the BLACK Critical Media Literacy Conference: Action! Awareness! Advocacy! in the African Diaspora. He also has a host of national and state conference presentations including Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Florida). Dr. Wilson has served as the clinician for the Durham All County Choir, as well as the NJMEA Middle/Junior High school choral festival. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Rider University. His research centers urban music educational experiences, race relations in music education, and practical applications of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, he is an active member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
WESTMINSTER JUBILEE SINGERS Vinroy D. Brown, Jr., conductor G. Preston Wilson, Jr., conductor Akiko Hosaki, accompanist Max Brey, graduate assistant Andrew Chojnacki, graduate assistant SOPRANO Elizabeth Berger, Hereford, MD Juli Chiriboga, Huntington, NY Maya Cooper, Fairfax, VA Olivia Dixon, Woodbury, NJ Jada Laws, Pine Beach, NJ Annie McCasland, Potomac, MD Arianna McMorris, Wading River, NY Abbey Ritter, Geneva, NY Payton Tharp, Hamilton, NJ Sarah Vawdrey, Teaneck, NJ Julia Wilder, Carmel, NY
ALTO Emilie Beals, Carlisle, PA Cherisse R. Bonefont, Lumberton, NJ Alessia D. Bradley, Pleasantville, NJ Emma Clark, Danville, PA Alyssa M. Lester, Monroe, NJ Abigail A. Rose, Perkasie, PA Anna Spendley, LaGrangeville, NY Jasmin U. Villatoro, Holbrook, NY
TENOR Andrew Chojnacki, Delran, NJ Denver H. Edwards, Goshen, IN Daniel J. Piver, East Hampton, NY Michael H. Woods, Colonie, NY
BASS Zyheim Bell, Fort Myers, FL Max Brey, Tallahassee, FL Lucas Heredia, East Brunswick, NJ Alastair Stewart, Pointe Claire, Quebec
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Director of Choral Studies Director of Performance Management Associate Director of Performance Management Coordinator of Performance Management
Kelly Bidle Jason Vodicka James Jordan Kristen Rodgers Leandra Acosta Samuel Stephenson
About Rider University & Westminster Choir College Located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Rider University is a private co-educational, student-centered university that emphasizes purposeful connections between academic study and real-world learning experience. Rider prepares graduates to thrive professionally, to be lifelong independent learners, and to be responsible citizens who embrace diversity, support the common good, and contribute meaningfully to the changing world in which they live and work. The College of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to educating students for engaged citizenship, career success, and personal growth in a diverse and complex world. The college cultivates intellectual reflection, artistic creativity, and academic maturity by promoting both broad academic inquiry and in-depth disciplinary study, while nurturing effective and ethical applications of transferable critical skills. The College consists of four schools: the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the School of Communication, Media, and Performing Arts, the School of Science, Technology, and Mathematics, and Westminster Choir College. Culturally vibrant and historically rich, Westminster Choir College has a legacy of preparing students for thriving careers as well-rounded performers and musical leaders on concert stages, in schools, universities, and churches, and in professional and community organizations worldwide. Renowned for its tradition of choral excellence, the college is home to internationally recognized ensembles, including the Westminster Symphonic Choir, which has performed and recorded with virtually all of the major orchestras and conductors of our time. In addition to its choral legacy, Westminster is known as a center for excellence in musical pedagogy and performance.
Upcoming Performances WESTMINSTER CONCERT BELL CHOIR AT OCEAN COUNTY COLLEGE Friday, December 1, 7:30 p.m. Ocean County College WESTMINSTER CONCERT BELL CHOIR: TOMORROW SHALL BE MY DANCING DAY! Saturday, December 2, 4 p.m. Gill Chapel NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 Friday, December 8, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 9, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 10, 2 p.m. Rider University – Bart Luedeke Center Theater AN EVENING OF READINGS AND CAROLS Friday December 8, 8 p.m. Saturday, December 9, 8 p.m. Princeton University Chapel – Princeton, NJ FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UPCOMING PERFORMANCES, SUBSCRIPTION AND PATRON PROGRAM OPTIONS, VISIT RIDER.EDU/ARTS.