Gospel 'giants' here for workshop, concert

By MARY BETH SPINA
News Services Editor

Being held as part of the university's sesquicentennial celebration, the workshop will include a Gospel Showcase at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts. It will open with Boyer's presentation, "The Old Ship of Zion: African-American Gospel Music," followed by a concert featuring Smallwood. A community mass choir with members from throughout Western New York also will perform.

The showcase program, which will include selections from Smallwood's award-winning albums, promises an evening of spectacular gospel music and a fascinating look at its history for the Western New York community, says Mary Gresham, associate vice president for public service and urban affairs at UB and chair of the Gospel Music Workshop committee.

Lectures and workshops on Friday, Oct. 18, and Saturday, Oct. 19, are designed for those who want to learn more about this uniquely American music and for others who simply enjoy gospel music.

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Urban Affairs and co-sponsored by the UB Department of Music and Episcopal Campus Ministries.

Smallwood, an award-winning songwriter, arranger, composer and producer, has performed at the White House and has been honored by the Smithsonian Institution as a "gospel innovator."

Recording on the Verity label, he is music director of "The Children of the Gospel," a 300-voice choir of youth sponsored by the Washington Performing Arts Society. The choir performs annually to a sold-out audience at the Kennedy Center.

Professor of music theory and African-American music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Boyer has been music director for productions of such shows as "Purlie," "Blues for Mr. Charlie" and "Do Lord Remember Me."

He has directed the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers, toured around the world as a vocalist, authored book chapters and articles on spirituals and gospel music, and furnished liner notes for Columbia Records.

The workshop/lecture portion of the two-day program will begin at 7 p.m. on Oct. 18 in the Mainstage with selections by the UB Gospel Choir.

A lecture on "The Social and Cultural Functions of Gospel Music in Churches Today" by Troy A. Bronner will follow at 7:30 p.m. Pastor and teacher at the 2,550-member Calvary Baptist Church in Buffalo, Bronner is a faculty member at Colgate Rochester Divinity School, where he earned a master's of divinity degree.

Saturday workshops will be held in Baird Hall on the North Campus.

The schedule:

· 8:30-9:30 a.m.-"Improvisation Using Different Instruments," Melvin Bryant, choir director of the First Shiloh Baptist Church

· 8:30-9:30 a.m.-"Producing and Studio Time," Pastor Jerome Ferrell of Greater New Hope Church of God in Christ in Buffalo.

· 9:45-11 a.m.-"Gospel Music Industry," Richard Smallwood

· 11:30 a.m.-"Introducing Gospel Piano," Horace Boyer

· 1-2:15 p.m.-"The Social and Cultural Functions of Gospel Music in Churches Today," a plenary forum moderated by Pastor Alvin Parris of New Life Fellowship Church in Rochester. Panelists will include Bishop David Bowman of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York; Ferrell; Jesse Nash, sociology professor at Canisius College, and Pastor Steve Saxe of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Buffalo.

· 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.-"How to Keep the Gospel Sacred: Calling and Anointing the Choir Member," Ella Robinson, a music teacher at Lincoln Academy, WNY representative for the Gospel Music Workshop of America and music director at Great Hope Missionary Baptist Church; "Movement for Choir and Liturgical Dance," William E. Thomas, associate professor, UB Department of Theatre and Dance; "Voice Training," Joyce Robinson, a teacher at the Buffalo Academy of Visual & Performing Arts and outreach coordinator for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.