VOCALESSENCE CELEBRATES “28 DAYS OF BLACK EXCELLENCE” FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Jennifer Weismann
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VOCALESSENCE CELEBRATES “28 DAYS OF BLACK EXCELLENCE” FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Associate conductor G. Phillip Shoultz will feature Black achievements in the arts and beyond during his 9 a.m. daily “Take 5 with GPS” performance series
MINNEAPOLIS—January 27, 2021—VocalEssence, one of the world’s premier choral music organizations, will showcase Black achievement in the arts and beyond each day of Black History Month as part of its daily pandemic show, Take 5 with GPS. VocalEssence has long celebrated the contributions of African Americans to our shared American heritage through concerts, recordings, and school programs through its VocalEssence WITNESS program—this special program will expand those educational opportunities.
Termed “28 Days of Black Excellence,” the programming will be led by Take 5 with GPS host, VocalEssence associate conductor and director of learning & engagement programs G. Phillip Shoultz, III. Programming will be available live every day in February at 9 a.m. on YouTube or Facebook, and archived for later viewing.
“I started Take 5 with GPS on March 30 last year at the beginning of the pandemic to build connections even when we can’t all be together,” said G. Phillip Shoultz, also known as GPS. “Our goal is now to make it 365 straight days. On Take 5, we start with a quick exercise, and then add wellness components, poems, and song. I view it as a time for centering, reflecting, and being grateful, plus an opportunity to watch and follow along at home.”
“As special programming for Black History Month, I wanted to focus energy on genius as it exists in the Black community,” added Shoultz. “For each episode, we’ll sing a song that was either written by or made popular by a Black artist and highlight poetry, inspirational thoughts, inventions, and creations by Black entrepreneurs,” he added.
Highlights of the month will include musical selections from spirituals and soul to gospel and R&B. Poets will range from Langston Hughes to Maya Angelou. Black inventors will include Garrett Morgan (traffic light), Sarah Boone (improved ironing board), James E. West (microphone), Lewis Lattimore (carbon lightbulb filament), George Washington Carver (hundreds of products using peanuts) and Mary Van Briton Brown (home security center).
In addition to the daily live streams, the videos will live on the VocalEssence WITNESS School Portal, a FREE online website for teachers with resources and opportunities to learn about well-known African American artists across various disciplines. Included in the portal are video lessons and workshops created by a team of VocalEssence Teaching Artists. Learn more on the VocalEssence website: https://www.vocalessence.org/what-we-do/learning-and-engagement-programs/witness/vocalessence-witness-school-program
Expanding boundaries and creating wider access to the choral arts is one of Phillip’s passions. Each year, he serves as mentor to educators through classroom visits and as an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate Music Education program at the University of St. Thomas. The winner of the 2015 American Choral Directors Association Graduate Student Conducting Competition, he appeared as a Conducting Fellow with the Oregon Bach Festival, Chorus America, Choral Music Experience Institute and several other summer programs. He has prepared choirs for performances in Canada, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Mexico, and Russia. In 2017, he was named as an ACDA International Conductors’ Exchange Program Participant.
VocalEssence, called “one of the irreplaceable music ensembles of our time” by Dana Gioia, past chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts—and the choral ensemble that Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones says “sings magnificently”—impacts thousands of students, singers, and composers each year through its initiative programs, contests, and support for innovative art. VocalEssence was founded in 1969 and has debuted more than 250 commissions and world premieres. For more information, visit vocalessence.org.
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