By Nia Williams
Two hundred students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of 23 churches across Long Beach will join together for a shared love of gospel music on March 1, as Long Beach State celebrates their first Gospel Music Week.
Gospel Music Week began on Feb. 24, with rehearsals for the event running until Feb. 28 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music.
The choir features Long Beach State’s university choir, and welcomes any singer of any skill level to join the choral group, with no auditions required.
A free concert will take place March 1st at Bethany Church in Long Beach. The doors open at 11 a.m. and the show starts promptly at 11:30 a.m.
Associate Vice President of Student Success and Engagement at CSULB, Daria Graham is one of the main members responsible for bringing Gospel Music Week to life.
According to Graham, the week is an outgrowth of Super Sunday, an event held by various California State Universities on the last Sunday of February, where faculty and staff visit Black churches to recruit students and promote CSU education.
Graham, and others desired to extend Super Sunday beyond a single day.
“And we had an idea last year – how could we do it differently,” Graham said. “And then, ‘how could we make it longer than just that Sunday?’ And so, we thought about doing a concert.”
Graham then shared the idea with the head of CSULB’s choral department Jonathan Talberg, who was interested in incorporating gospel music to his repertoire to extend the genres of music his department covers.
In addition to Talberg, Ananias “Markey” Montague is another asset to making the event a success.
Montague, a well-known gospel musician, has worked alongside gospel artists like Richard Smallwood, Ricky Dillard, Kim McFarland and Lyle Lovett.
Montague will be directing the choir, while Talberg will feature two of CSULB’s choral groups in the overall group.
Malcolm McGee, a master’s student of music in choral conducting, leads Gospel Week rehearsal on Feb. 20 Photo vredit: Brandon Dorsey.
The week carries a lot of significance to Graham, especially for its timing during Black History Month.
To her, gospel music goes beyond just religion – it is a way to celebrate communities that are underrepresented.
“Gospel music is a way for us to again, recognize history, particularly in a time where our underrepresented populations, our targeted populations, need to continue to be seen and celebrated and recognized,” Graham said. “And so, we’ll do that [in] lots of ways this month, but we’ll do it at the concert.”
Graham also stresses the importance of the message behind gospel music, and said the genre can speak to people regardless of their religious beliefs.
Gospel music highlights, “hope and connection and the importance of community right, and the celebrating of one’s identity and their uniqueness in the world,” according to Graham. “Those messages are universal, and they are across any religious belief system.”
Gospel Music Week officially kicked off at Super Sunday on Feb. 23. Their full concert, after a full week of rehearsal, will be performed on March 1 at 11:30 a.m. at the Bethany Church in Long Beach.
All information is available here.
