"I Feel the Spirit" concert
“Every Time I Feel the Spirit”, arr. William Dawson. Joint choirs.
On Saturday June 7, United Church of Chapel Hill presented a concert of Negro spirituals. The concert was sponsored by the Negro Spirituals Royalties Project of UCCH and by the Royalties for Spirituals project of Pilgrim United Church of Christ.
The money raised at the concert will provide support to SONAM and 100 Men in Black through these projects at UCCH and PUCC.
From the program notes: “These beautiful songs have become our legacy. We are indebted. Churches and performing groups regularly pay royalties to copyright holders for the music they sing, but no one owns the copyrights to Negro Spirituals. We want to make that wrong right. We cannot pay the original composers, but we can pay that debt forward with funds which help young minority musicians in our own community. Today’s concert is both a celebration of the creative spirit that brought us the Negro Spiritual, and a chance to pay forward the debt we owe to those creators.”
Slides of singers depict
100 Men in Black, “King Jesus is a Listening”, arr. The LA Mass Choir
Singers of New and Ancient Music, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” arr. Moses Hogan
Singers of New and Ancient Music, “Deep River” arr. Alexander Blake, Jada Poteat, conductor
Chancel Choir, United Church of Chapel Hill, “Ride On, Jesus”, arr. Dr. Roland Carter
