(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Westminster Jubilee Singers will present a concert titled “Don’t You Grieve for Me, Alleluia” on Sunday, May 5 at 7:30pm in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J. Led by the ensemble’s conductor Vinroy D. Brown, Jr., the program highlights four works by African American women composers: Evelyn La Rue Pittman’s arrangement of Any How, Undine Smith Moore’s Scenes From the Life of a Martyr, B.E. Boykin’s arrangement of Go Down Moses and Rosephanye Powell’s The Cry of Jeremiah.
Additional performers include Silky Carter, soprano; Patrice P. Eaton, mezzo soprano; Kenneth D. Ellerbee, tenor; Daniel Rich, baritone, Zackary Ross, organ and Rosephanye Powell, narrator.
‘I find that in my personal and academic study of music, while representation of choral music by African Americans is growing, recognition of the contributions of African American Women composers is static at best,” says conductor Vinroy Brown. “That realization serves as the birth of this program and project.’
Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors and are available by phone at 609-921-2663 or online at www.rider.edu/arts.
Composed of students selected by audition, the Westminster Jubilee is modeled after the historically acclaimed Fisk Jubilee Singers. Its repertoire, while specialized and select, is very diverse and focuses on solo and ensemble artistic expressions from its singers. Part of Westminster Choir College’s Sacred Music Department, the ensemble performs literature that includes African-American spirituals and folk songs; classical music by African-American composers; gospel music and secular songs by musical greats such as William Dawson, Duke Ellington, Patti LaBelle, Walter Hawkins, Quincy Jones, Andre Crouch, Richard Smallwood, Kirk Franklin, Dr. Nathan Carter, as well as Westminster graduates, Rosephanye Powell, Donald Dillard and Roger Holland.
Vinroy D. Brown, Jr. is a member of the Sacred Music faculty at Westminster Choir College, where he conducts the Westminster Jubilee Singers. A church musician, he is director of music & worship arts at Elmwood United Presbyterian Church where his responsibilities include building music and arts programs. He maintains an active conducting schedule, and he is founder and artistic director of the Elmwood Concert Singers and artistic director and conductor of the Capital Singers of Trenton. During the 2018-2019 season, he has conducted Handel’s Messiah, presented concerts in Freehold and Long Beach Island, N. J., and presented Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music Concerts with the Elmwood Concert Singers. He also headlined the Harlem Classical Music Festival in New York this February.
Westminster Choir College of Rider University is located at 101Walnut Lane in Princeton.
