10/29/2008
Four guest choirs will raise their voices in praise with the SUNY Cortland Gospel Choir during the 23rd African American Gospel Music Festival on Sunday, Nov. 2, at the College.
The festival begins at 4 p.m. in Corey Union Function Room. The event is open to the public. Tickets are $2 for students, $4 for faculty, staff and senior citizens and $5 for general admission. Proceeds support the Gospel Choir Scholarship, the Programming Fund and the 2009 Germany and Belgium European Tour.
Casey Hahl, the current Student Government Association president and a Gospel Choir member, will extend the welcome on behalf of the College. SUNY Cortland will open the festival. Guest choirs this year are Binghamton University Gospel Choir, the SUNY Oneonta Gospel Choir, SUNY Oswego Gospel Choir and Syracuse University's Black Celestial Choral Ensemble.
Each choir has been asked to present two songs, one gospel and one a cappella. A mass choir, featuring all the choirs together, will serve as the finale.
Directing Cortland's Gospel Choir will be Robert Brown, a SUNY Cortland adjunct instructor in Africana Studies and music teacher at Blodgett Elementary School in Syracuse, N.Y. He also serves as music director of the New Life Community Church in Syracuse.
Choir musicians are Andy Rudy on keyboard, Reginald Siegler on bass guitar and Benjamin Terry on percussion, all from Syracuse; and Jamie Yaman of Cortland on alto saxophone.
Choir officers for the 2008-09 school year are Paula Gooden, president, a senior biomedical sciences major from Queens Village, N.Y.; Sulema Iriarte, vice president, a senior majoring in childhood and early childhood education from Staten Island, N.Y.; Erica Roman, secretary, a junior majoring in adolescence education: Spanish from Rome, N.Y.; and Michelle Loomis, treasurer, an early childhood education major from Hamburg, N.Y. Tour manager this year is once again Mark Santiago, a senior physical education major from Albertson, N.Y. Dot Thomas '77 from Cortland, N.Y., continues to serve as alumni officer.
The Gospel Choir, which is comprised of college, high school and community members, has been recognized for its outstanding performances at the National Collegiate Gospel Competition in New York City. The choir made its first international tour to England in April 2007 and presented concerts in Brixton and London. In March of this year, the choir toured Toronto, Canada and Niagara Falls, N.Y. The group opens the 2008-09 season with a performance in Canastota, N.Y., on Sunday, Oct. 26.
SUNY Cortland's first African American Gospel Music Festival began in 1985 with the Cortland County Council of Churches, the Interfaith Center, and the SUNY Cortland Black Student Union as sponsors. Over the years, students from England, Africa, South America, Germany, Austria and Japan have participated. This year, the choir has members from Japan, Haiti and Jamaica. Community members, College alumni and faculty also participate.
Part of the College's Africana Studies Department, the choir is also supported by the Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies, the Alumni Affairs Office, the Cortland College Foundation, the Division of Student Affairs, the Offices of the President, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the student activity fee.
For more information, contact Professor Samuel L. Kelley at (607) 753-4104 or sam.kelley@cortland.edu or Professor Seth Asumah at (607) 753-2064.
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