Follow the HT Concert Choir During Black History Month
Friday Feb, 03 2012
HT Concert Choir Schedule
| Event | Date | Location | |
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University Baptist Church Featuring |
Sunday, Feb. 19 at 11 a.m. |
2130 Guadalupe St. Austin, Texas 78705 512.478.8559 |
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Maranatha Bible Church |
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7855 E. Loop 1604 North Converse, Texas 78109 210.653.4101 or 212.862.7611 |
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St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church |
Sunday, April 15 | 1202 Pecan Street Pflugerville, Texas 78660 512.252.4551 |
Roland Carter, noted as an authority on the performance and preservation of African American music, performed during the annual Black History Month collaborative celebration with the Huston-Tillotson University Concert Choir, under the direction of Dr. Gloria Quinlan, and the University of Texas choir on Friday, Feb. 3. The performance was held at the Bates Recital Hall. The evening featured Carter and Dr. Allen Franklin Todd, II, an accomplished singer who has written numerous gospel, worship, and praise selections.
Carter is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mar-Vel, a music publisher specializing in the music of African American Composers and traditions. Carter has directed the Chattanooga Choral Society for the Preservation of African American Song for 19 years, and served as music advisor and principle guest conductor of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, Houston, Texas, for 12 years. An unquestionably gifted composer-arranger, it is Carter’s arrangement of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” that is most often used to present the anthem in formal settings. His arrangements and settings have and continue to be performed by orchestras and choirs throughout the world. Carter is the Ruth S. Holmberg Professor of American Music in the Department of Music at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). His accomplishments as a leading figure in the choral arts include concerts with major choruses and orchestras in prestigious venues nationwide; as well as lectures, workshops, and master classes. From presidential inaugurations to the smallest church, from scholarly presentations for national gatherings of musicians, educators, and preservationists to private coaching with individual singers, Carter lends his keen ear, bright mind, and talented hands to projects of every sort.
Todd serves as the Music Area Coordinator, Assistant Professor of Music, and Director of the Lemoyne-Owen College Concert Choir. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia; the Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting from the College of Music Arts at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio; and the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Performance with concentrations in Opera Studies, Choral Conducting and Voice from the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee.
Dr. Gloria Quinlan in the Spotlight at the Kennedy Center
Dr. Gloria Quinlan, professor of music and conductor of the Huston-Tillotson University Concert Choir, was selected as one of the conductors of 105 Voices of History Historically Black Colleges and Universities Concert Choir. In addition, HT students M’Kenzie Flakes (second row, third from right) and Mariann Henry joined the world-class concert performance scheduled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The 2011 concert was hosted by the original “Dreamgirl” and Tony Award Winner Jennifer Holliday as well as jazz musician and Grammy Award winner Kirk Whalum. See more pictures at www.hbcuchoirs-105voh.com.
Huston-Tillotson University Concert Choir
The Concert Choir continues the University’s proud heritage of world-class performing ensembles, and the tradition of the historically black college and university choirs as ambassadors for their respective schools. The current 35-student member choir, the greater number of whom are music majors, performs a wide variety of music, including works from the classical choral repertoire, spirituals, gospel, and jazz.
Quinlan earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Texas Southern University and a master’s in music from Colorado State University. She later received a doctorate in music administration from the University of Texas at Austin. Quinlan was recently promoted to chair of Huston-Tillotson University’s Department of Humanities and Fine Arts in which the music major is housed. She is also credited with recording with the University of Texas Trombone Choir (2009), and was the Southwest Regional Conductor for the 105 Voices of History National Choir, 2009-2010.
The HT choir is a much-beloved institution in the Austin, Texas, area and is currently completed a recording for release. The choir performs at more than 30 engagements annually in addition to its on-campus responsibilities at University functions, such as Charter Day, Commencement Convocation, and Honors Convocation. The choir’s Christmas concert is a highlight of theAustinmusic scene each year. The group also performs annually inDallas,San Antonio, andHouston. In 2008 those performances included the premiere of a work by a Houston composer, Lela Anderson. In 2010 the choir performed with world-renowned artists Carmen Bradford and Melba Joyce.
In recent years, the choir has touredWashington, D.C., New York, and St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, to great acclaim. During, February 2008, in theVirgin Islands, the choir joined with alumni from the University of the Virgin Islands Concert Choir for a UVI Choir reunion concert.
The choir’s renown has been enhanced by recognition from the highest levels of our government. President Bush and the White House invited the choir to sing for the opening of the Texas State Museum on April 21, 2001. Later that same month, the choir sang for former President Jimmy Carter during an engagement at SouthwesternUniversity, Georgetown, Texas. The choir received a great honor when it was asked to provide the choral music for the Lady Bird Johnson Final Tribute, July 2007.
The choir has also demonstrated its versatility by performing with artists who do not feature works from the standard repertoire, including providing background vocals for Linda Eder, Ben Vereen, and the Colors of Christmas Tour (featuring Deniece Williams). Additionally, the choir provided all of the ensemble music for the Group Sales Event’s concert version of the Walt Disney touring production “Lion King” held inAustin’s Bass Concert Hall.
Other performing highlights include recent performances of “Sister Moses,” a program centered on the life of Harriet Tubman, with the Desert Dance Theater from Phoenix, Arizona, a full production of the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” annual appearances at the City of Austin’s unveiling of Black History Month street banners, singing at the Texas State Cemetery for the re-interment of a Hall of Fame Negro League baseball player, two performances of the “Gospel Mass,” in conjunction with Southwestern University Concert Choir, under the direction of the composer, Robert Ray. Annually in February during Black History Month, the choir performs its collaborative concert with the Austin Chamber Music Center in a performance of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert to a standing-room only audience.
The choir performs regularly in Wichita, Kansas, as part of the Annual Wichita Black Expo, an event which brings recruiters from more than 40 historically black and other colleges and universities to meet with students from Wichita high schools. The Wichita City Council declares the day Huston-Tillotson University Day, in honor of the choir’s performance.
Huston-Tillotson’s Concert Choir and the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas collaborated in the third annual Black History Month Concert, held at the University of Texas at Austin. The two schools also collaborated in April 2009 in several performances of Duke Ellington’s Opera “Queenie Pie.”
The choir scheduled a West Coast tour for the first time in more than 15 years. Choir members visited and performed at the Susan Miller Dorsey and Crenshaw high schools in Los Angeles as well as at the Breath of Life Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Inglewood; New Covenant Baptist Church, Norwalk; and Holman United Methodist Church, Los Angeles. Their April 2011 travels also took them to Universal Studios where they met “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno.
The HT choir is also proud of its role in recruiting new students and raising funds for the University.
