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Morgan State University Choir: Voices of Greatness

   Morgan State University, situated in the heart of Baltimore City, Maryland, attracts students from across the nation; from various educational backgrounds to be a part of its prestigious mass choir.
   The students all have a passion for singing. Their director, Eric Conway, recently joked on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” that he has to remind his charges they cannot major in choir. What needs no reminder, however, is the choir’s dedication to “keeping the concert version of the spiritual alive.”
   The choir’s powerful performances celebrate various other musical traditions. In one concert, the talented students can weave their voices around the reverent sounds of spirituals, switch up to the subdued power of classicals, or shout and handclap to the liveliest in contemporary gospel.
   The 40-member student ensemble, part of a larger 150-member mass choir, will perform several songs from their repertoire, which includes classical, contemporary, and gospel selections. On the line up for their Virgin Islands performances are the spirituals “Swing Low” and “Rock-A-My-Soul.” Morgan State University Choir is also performing selections from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” including “I Got Plenty of Nothing,” “Summertime,” and “Oh Lawd, I’m on my Way.”
   During Reichhold Center’s 1983-1984 season, Morgan State University Choir performed alongside the then College of the Virgin Islands Choir. This year, choirs from Ivanna Eudora Kean and from Charlotte Amalie high schools will perform with the Morgan State choir at Reichhold Center. Monet Davis leads the 20-member group from Ivanna Eudora Kean, while Francis Callwood leads about 12 student singers from Charlotte Amalie. The three choirs sing together on “Great is thy Faithfulness.”  
   Morgan State choir recently performed at Strathmore Hall, just outside Washington, DC, in the program “Free to Sing: The story of the first African-American Opera Company.” The concert featured Virgin Islands native Gylchris Sprauve. After their Virgin Islands tour, the choristers will join conductor Bobby McFerrin and St. Luke’s Orchestra of New York for a concert at Carnegie Hall. Performances are also set for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Museum.
   The Choir accompanies and collaborates with many notables in the music world. They performed with the New York Philharmonic on Wynton Marsalis’ commissioned piece “All Rise.” The students have also sang alongside and/or recorded with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the National Symphony.
   Morgan State University Choir has had a steady rise to the top since 1970, when the late Nathan Carter took over as director. In 2004, the Choir was voted “One of the best in the nation” by Reader’s Digest magazine.
   However, 2004 also marked a transition for the Choir with Carter’s death in July of that year. Carter, a graduate of the Hampton Institute, the Juilliard School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, took the Choir to new heights. During his 34-year tenure, the students sang before several presidents and dignitaries, including the late Pope John Paul II.
   The choir’s talent also extends to their role as ambassadors. Carter took his students across the world, playing venues in Russia, Canary Islands and the Bahamas. That tradition continues with Conway. In 2006, Morgan State University Choir traveled to Prague, Czech Republic to perform with maestro Paul Freeman.
   And in 2007, the students got rave reviews for their tour across Ghana in celebration of the nation’s 50 years of independence. The Choir has a tradition of singing a song from every country they visit, for example, on their recent trip to Ghana, the group sang the Ghanian national anthem.
   The choristers also participate in various yearly activities celebrating African-American greats such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Rosa Parks. During the Choir’s 1996-1997 season, the group participated in Carnegie Hall’s 100th birthday tribute to Marian Anderson. Also during that season, Morgan State choir celebrated their quarter century of music with a “Silver Anniversary” concert, broadcasted on Maryland Public Television. The concert earned the television station three Emmy Awards.
   Support for Morgan State University’s performance in the Virgin Islands came from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. The concerts are a collaboration between Reichhold Center and Virgin Islands Council on the Arts.

—Diane Francis