UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State's Essence of Joy will present its first concert of the season in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center's Worship Hall at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8. The concert features two contrasting arrangements of the spiritual "Ride the Chariot," as well as two arrangements of "America the Beautiful." The music director of Essence of Joy is Anthony Leach.
Tickets are $4.99 for general admission and $2 for students. No advance ticket purchase is available. Tickets, which are cash only, will go on sale 45 minutes prior to the concert in the lobby. This concert also will be available via livestream at the Penn State School of Music website.
Program (to be selected from)
Striving After God — Undine Smith Moore
This Is the Day — Reverend Joe Pace II
Lift Every Voice and Sing — arranged by Roland Carter
Ride the Chariot — arranged by William Henry Smith
Ride de Chariot — arranged by Jason Max Ferdinand
To Sit and Dream — Rosephanye Powell
Jenga Imani Yako — Israel Kagaruki, edited by Eugene Rogers
America the Beautiful — arranged by Mark Lehnowsky
America the Beautiful — arranged by Anthony Leach
Why Do We Sing? — Gale Jones Murphy
Thinking of You — Anthony Brown
I Just Want to Say Thanks — Raymond Wise
The Lord Is My Light — Percy Bady
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, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, North Carolina, South 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, 2003), the eastern division of the American Choral Directors Association (2002, 2006, 2014, 2017), the national American Choral Directors Association (1999, 2003, 2005, 2011), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (2000). In addition, they have 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, Japan, Canada, Spain and France.