From gospel to Broadway: Concert teams up Tuscaloosa Symphony, Stillman Choir

As two of the powerhouse collectives in the area, the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra and Stillman College Choir feel like a natural team, said TSO Music Director Adam Flatt. The getting-to-know-you process sped up last year, with a February joint concert. Monday's Stillman-TSO performance, "I Can Tell the World," goes even deeper.

"The relationship with Stillman, we finally made it click, and got acquainted last year," Flatt said, in a kind of cameo appearance by the renowned choir, born out of Tuscaloosa's historically Black colllege. "And God, are they good."

More:Actor's Charitable Theatre tackles macabre musical 'Sweeney Todd'

Before the final notes had even begun to fade in the Moody Concert Hall, he knew 2023 would call for more.

"We knew that next year, we wanted a whole evening with them," Flatt said, and so began working with friend and colleague Jocqueline K. Richardson, director of choral activities at Stillman, to create an entire shared evening performance.

"There will be some music from the gospel and African-American traditions, then some other selections that are just interesting contemporary choral works," Flatt said. Of course, he leaned on Richardson to guide in what would work best for the choir, which tends to change with graduating and incoming students.

"Every year's a rebuilding year with a student ensemble," he said, although some Stillman alumna, community members, do sing with the choir. "Jocqueline and I each made up a wish list, and sent them to each other."

Monday's concert will include spirituals, including a paired set by Moses Hogan, "I Can Tell the World/I am His Child," and "The Ground," from "Sunrise Mass" by Ola Gjeilo, reprised from last year's performance. Added to that will be Hogan's "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel," John Leavitt's "Festival Sanctus," Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," and for a closer, the rousing "Anthem of Praise" by Richard Smallwood.

Voices will rise also on some Broadway and Hollywood songs, each connected with transcendent themes, including "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," and "You'll Never Walk Alone," from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" and "Carousel," and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from Harold Arlen's score for the 1939 "The Wizard of Oz."

The symphony will shine on a group of larger orchestral works, including the "Festive Overture" by William Grant Still, "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin, and a Duke Ellington medley, arranged by Calvin Custer.

During last year's concert, Natassia Perrine was still in the interview process for her current role as executive director of the TSO, but she well knew the work of the Stillman College Choir leader. In fact, one of Perrine's previous jobs in Tuscaloosa, about a decade back, had been stepping up to the post formerly held by Richardson, as choral director for the Tuscaloosa City School system, as post Richardson had held for 30-plus years before moving over to Stillman.

"That was both an honor and a challenge, because she is an absolute legend," said Perrine, who's been to several of the choir's rehearsals this month, to shoot introductory videos for promotion. "Many of my students, she had taught not just them, but their brothers and sisters, and some of their parents. The Jocqueline Richardson family rolls deep."

The best choirs need more than just beautiful voices, Perrine said, but the ability to tell stories, bring colors and feelings into their voices; to sometimes take a solo, and other times listen in order to best blend and collaborate.

"If you trust one another, create a real family, the music that you can make is limitless," she said. "Great artists can be fantastic soloists, but they have the potential to be even better ensemble musicians."

The long-renowned Stillman choirs are perhaps most locally noted at their annual Christmas concerts, but they've performed as a traveling group, too, to state and national festivals, and from Tuscaloosa's sister city Schorndorf, Germany, to New York's Carnegie Hall. The Stillman Choir has recorded mixes of classical, spiritual and secular music, available on CD, vinyl and for download.

"I think if someone has never heard the Stillman Choir, if you're late to the game, or if you've never been to hear an an orchstra, this is a fantastic introduction," Perrine said, with selections running the gamut, from classical to Broadway to pop to spiritual. "Let the choir kind of help you get into that, and pique your interest.

"I'm confident everybody will leave humming something."

"I Can Tell The World"

What: Joint TSO-Stillman College Choir Concert

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Moody Concert Hall, University of Alabama campus

Cost: $30, or $40 for premium seating; students admitted free. Ticket mini-packages are on sale for all three spring 2023 concerts, saving up to $90 on premium seating.

For more: www.tsoonline.org, or 205-752-5515.