ACOBE Virtual Choir Collaboration

The ACOBE Fest: Virtual Experience aims to celebrate Black Excellence & Education past the 28 days "allotted" in February.

This significant creative work was done through a collaboration with A Celebration of Black Excellence (ACOBE), Notes for Notes, myself at Anderson University (SC), and individual singers from various choral programs at schools, churches, and other organizations. The virtual choir performance was premiered at the ACOBE Festival Virtual Conference on April 16th, 2021, in front of a national audience.

This project seeks to express ideas related to diversity, inclusion, and acceptance. This project seeks to overcome boundaries imposed by Covid-19 limitations, most notably time and space. This creative endeavor is cross-disciplinary, and a collaboration among various organizations whose areas of focus include commercial music, music education, diversity and inclusion, and social justice.

Late last Spring Jordan Lee at ACOBE approached me with an invitation and request. He invited me to participate in the 2021 ACOBE Festival and asked if I could produce a virtual choir of Total Praise. This song, along with the community choir, are a tradition at the annual ACOBE festival and they wanted to ensure that the choir would be included in this year's festival. I accepted the invitation and immediately began the work necessary to realize this experience and performance.

In this video, you will see 100 singers representing 16 different organizations.

This work would not have been possible without the help from specific people at Anderson University. Thank you, Nathan Cox, for your guidance and support as I navigated many aspects of this project. Thank you, Joe Wehunt and Patrick Ford, for your work and assistance on various aspects this project, most notably the audio (Joe) and video (Patrick). Without your expertise the project would have taken another form or gone in another direction. Bravo!

Thank you, Jordan Lee, for the invitation to produce this video for ACOBE. Also, thank you for your passionate, tenacious, and resilient spirit and positive influence. I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with you on a project like this!

Thank you to everyone at ACOBE, whose essential and necessary work is making significant and positive impacts on the lives of many!