UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State School of Music's Essence of Joy choir will present its first campus concert of the semester at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9, in the Worship Hall of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center. The choir is conducted by Anthony Leach. The choreographer is School of Theatre Professor Aquila Kikora Franklin, and Jermaine Crosson is the student choreographer. Percussionists are Olawatobi Jewoola and Emanuel Gamble.
Tickets are $4.99 for general admission and $2 for students. No advance ticket purchase is available. Ticket sales will begin 45 minutes prior to the concert in the lobby and are cash only. The concert will also be available via livestream video at the Penn State School of Music website.
Program (to be selected from)
Hear My Prayer — Moses Hogan
O Magnify — Glenn Burleigh
Lift Every Voice For Freedom — Moses Hogan
I’m Gonna Sing Til the Spirit Moves In My Heart — Moses Hogan
Yon Monn Nouvo — Sydney Guillaume
Turn The World Around — Larry Farrow
Glory from: “Selma” — Lonnie Lynn, Che Smith and John Stephens
America the Beautiful — arranged by Anthony Leach
Great God, Great Praise — Kurt Carr
Worth — Anthony Brown
I Just Want To Say Thanks — Raymond Wise
Anticipation — V. Michael McKay
Created in 1991, Essence of Joy sings sacred and secular music from the African and African-American choral traditions. Annual University Park events include fall and spring concerts, as well as the "African American Music Festival" (February) and "Our Gift in Song" (December). The choir also regularly collaborates with other Penn State ensembles, including a performance of the Leonard Bernstein "Mass" in 2013.
Involving undergraduate and graduate students from all academic programs at Penn State, Essence of Joy has performed throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, and Illinois. The choir has been invited to perform for conferences of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (1995, 1997, 2003), the eastern division of the Music Educators National Conference (1997), the eastern division of the American Choral Directors Association (2002, 2006, 2014), the national American Choral Directors Association (1999, 2003, 2005, 2011), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (2000). In addition, the choir has presented concerts at the Schomburg Museum of Black American Culture in New York City (1998, 1999, 2001). The choir has released four compact discs: "The Soul and Spirit of Essence" (1998), "Essence 'Live'" (2000), "Lift Every Voice and Sing," and "The Light" (2003). The choir made its first European tour in 2001 with concert performances in Poland and the Czech Republic. Recent tours have taken Essence of Joy members to South Africa, Taiwan, Korea, Spain and France.