EMU Chambers Singers performed with Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Bishop Hezekiah Walker and the Virginia Union University (VUU) Gospel Choir at the LIVE Recording and Homecoming Concert in October.
“I’ve been here almost seven years,” recalled EMU President Susan Schultz Huxman, “and it really does stand out as a top-five experience for me.”
The event, at the United Nations Church in Richmond, Virginia on Oct. 15, also included other notable gospel artists, such as Jermaine Dolly, Crystal Aikin, and Group Fire.
INVITATION
The event was the collective brainchild of President Huxman and Virginia Union University (VUU) President Hakim J. Lucas, Ph.D., after a mutual connection introduced them. The presidents looked for ways to connect:
“‘We both have a seminary, we both have private colleges, we both do race and reconciliation work, and we both have music programs that are all about music and worship,’” recalled President Huxman. “And then you look at what is different between us: urban, rural, [Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)], [Predominantly White University (PWI)]… and there was this ‘we gotta do something around worship, music, and peace.’”
When President Huxman sought the opinion of the EMU regional advancement director and mayor of Harrisonburg, Deanna Reed, because of her familiarity with VUU and connections to HBCUs, the Mayor was firmly on board: “I was like ‘we absolutely have to do this.’ … I told her this was an incredible opportunity for both universities, especially our students, and it would be an opportunity for different cultures to come together, but we were coming together as one voice.”
Especially incredible was the opportunity to collaborate with Hezekiah Walker. “He is a huge name in gospel music and it was an honor to work with him,” said Director of Orchestra and Choirs Benjamin Bergey. “He was on stage leading this final song as the lead vocalist.”
PREPARATION
Chamber Singers received the invitation a month before the concert and quickly began preparations. “We only performed in the closing song, which was a fairly simple but beautiful song to learn,” explained masters student Philip Krabill. As the choir learned “I Need You to Survive,” written by Bishop Walker, Bergey also prepared music, writing parts that matched the chords of VUU’s Gospel Band for the nine orchestra musicians from EMU who accompanied the song.
SIGNIFICANCE
Despite the quick turnaround time, the students were excited about the opportunity—including one outside of Chamber Singers. “I’m actually not in Chambers,” confessed junior Kay Pettus. “I just saw the Facebook post about them singing with Hezekiah Walker and I immediately started fangirling and asked if I could sing with them.” To Pettus, who had grown up with gospel music, participating in the concert “meant everything”: “I know Hezekiah Walker‘s music very well, and the song was near and dear to me as I sang ‘I Need You To Survive’ for my grandfather after he got out [of] the hospital. My grandparents also met while attending [VUU] so there’s also history there.”
Mayor Reed expressed similar sentiments, saying, “Gospel music, in the Black community, is our spirit; we go to gospel music when we’re hurting, when we’re celebrating: gospel music is part of who we are as a Black culture…to take our students who are majority white, who are majority Mennonite…in that space was incredible. To see our students join with a historical Black college [where] I think the entire gospel choir was African American, to stand together with that one song, as one voice, was emotional.”
For EMU Music Department Director David Berry, this literal and figurative harmony was also especially important: “The collaboration between our music groups was absolutely beautiful. It was an inspiring performance and I think everyone in the room felt the power of what can happen when we come together in a spirit of unity,” he said.
NEW EXPERIENCES
For some EMU students, the VUU Homecoming Concert was their first experience with a gospel choir. Mayor Reed recalled a conversation with Chambers Singer junior Adam Hoover, during which, in response to the mayor’s “How do you feel?” he replied, “I have never been to a Black gospel concert before in my life, and it has changed me”—exactly the reaction Mayor Reed hoped he’d have.
Bergey agreed, saying that the concert “gave our students a window into how gospel concerts can be at an urban HBCU like VUU. Also, any time that a group of mostly dominant-culture students can experience for even a day what it feels like in a setting where they are no longer in the majority, it helps in building empathy for those with identities that place them in a minority group and how that feels to go about life in that kind of context.”
“It was a powerful experience where we got to work with other singers and musicians who we don’t typically work with,” junior Reah Clymer, Chamber Singers, said.
Furthermore, the text itself is focused on the same theme: in the words of Bergey, “the connection of community and interconnectedness of humanity.”
REACTIONS
Overall, the concert was deemed a success. “It was a long day, but well worth it for all the singing, dancing, and celebrating we got to do together!” Clymer said. “We shared and received so much joy at that concert, just by being present in each other’s musical offerings.”
“Personally, I had never been to a service quite like this one before, with so many high-profile artists in a religious setting,” Krabill explained. “The energy was more like a concert, but like church, the singing was participatory; the artists invited us in, and also like church, all of the music was worship for God. The unique combination of emotions and spiritual practices is something I will continue to look for.”
Mayor Reed named the concert as “incredible,” saying, “all of it was the true gospel experience,” and that, through her attendance, she hoped to reinforce to the students the gravity of what they were doing: “I wanted to show the students that this was important not only to the university but to the city of Harrisonburg.”
Berry agreed, saying “It was a great time for all involved and a momentous occasion for our university…it turned out even better than we had dreamed.”
This seemed to be the general consensus among EMU participants and attendees, a group that also included Executive Advisor Amy Springer Hartsell, Dean of the School of Theology, Humanities, and Performing Arts Daniel Ott, Dean of Students Shannon Dycus, and guests.
GRAMMY NOMINATION AND FUTURE COLLABORATIONS
Adding to the significance is the plan to submit the recording of the concert for a Grammy nomination as an album—“We are so grateful that they asked us to be a small part of it,” said Clymer. “I hope we can continue a partnership of music-making and story-telling together because we could all learn a lot from these types of shared experiences.”
Pettus feels the same: “I would love to do something like this again and I would love to have something like this at EMU one year. Singing songs that many of the Black students on campus know and can relate to would mean so much to them.”
There is definitely concrete hope for such a future collaboration: “We’re already working on when that might happen,” President Huxman said.
COMING UP
In the meantime, readers can enjoy the upcoming EMU Music Department Christmas Gala and ‘Tis the Season: EMU Christmas Concert on Nov. 10 and Dec. 1, respectively, both at 7 p.m. and in Lehman Auditorium (and, Bergey reminds students that “EMU music ensembles are open to all students who are interested, regardless of major or training.”)
Readers can learn more about Bishop Walker on his official Facebook page and Virginia Union University on their website.
