Category | News

High School Gospel Goes to College

Published on February 10, 2009 by Susan Clough

Gospel choir collaborates for upcoming concert
Students from local high schools will take part in a workshop hosted by and the KSU music department’s Gospel Choir this weekend.

The High School Gospel Goes to College Festival concert, happening Sunday, will feature a performance by the combined Gospel Choirs of several Cobb county high schools and the KSU Gospel Choir under the direction of Dr. Moses, who is also a voice professor in KSU’s music department. The concert will be held at Orange Hill Baptist Church in Austell at 5 p.m. Feb. 15.

Participation in high school gospel choirs in has increased in the last few years, and Dr. Moses designed the workshop to provide an opportunity for local high school students to connect to KSU while honing their musical skills.

“About 100 high school kids will be on campus Saturday [Feb. 14],” said Dr. Moses. “They come to campus for a day and meet students in our Gospel Choir. It gives them a chance to sing with college students during a time when they are deciding where they will go after graduation.”

John White, a senior music major and president of the Gospel Choir, said that the joint concert gives high school students, as well as parents and those attending the concert, a positive impression of KSU as a university.

White is also excited about the event for other reasons.

“Many people don’t know a lot about gospel music,” White said. “It brings more diversity to our campus.”

Dr. Moses’ students, whether singing for credit or for fun, bring more than just diversity to the KSU community; and for junior music major Stephen Black, Gospel Choir is not just an outlet for making music.

“I love to minister [to others] through song,” said Black. “Gospel Choir gives me an avenue to do that.”

Anyone in the Student Center on the last Thursday of every month knows what he means.

In what he considers to be a hit-and-run sort of concert, Dr. Moses conducts a “Moment of Meditation” in front of the Leaning Man once a month; students, faculty and other members of the KSU community gather to experience the energetic and uplifting sound of the choir’s singing. The “Moment of Meditation,” which consists of two songs performed by the choir, as well as the Gospel Choir itself, is a fairly recent addition to the life of KSU’s campus.

“The [Gospel Choir] has been here since 2000,” said Moses. “It started first as part of our diversity program as a one-hour elective class. Now it’s a formal KSU organization and students have the option of participating in the club or taking the class.”

Moses said he and his students look forward to the monthly performances as a way to reach out to others through their music.

Orange Hill Baptist Church is located at 4293 Austell Rd., and though the concert is free, a suggested five dollar donation at the door will benefit the patients of Good Samaritan Health Center of Cobb County. Further information regarding the Gospel Choir can be found on the music department’s Web site at http://kennesaw.edu./music.