Performance Highlights — a selection of recordings that provide a snapshot of the Voices Experience.
Education and enlightenment are at the forefront of all Voices programming. When our audience enters one of our spaces, we aim to ensure every person walks away with something more than what they entered it with. We hope you enjoy our growing collection of experience excerpts.
From “Giving Voice”
(Spring 2024)
Presented by Houston Grand Opera (HGO) in partnership with Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church (WABC), this free event will be hosted by WABC congregant and journalist from ABC13-Melanie Lawson and feature arias sung by operatic soloists including mezzo-soprano and HGO honoree Marietta Simpson; Grammy Award-winning soprano Latonia Moore; tenor Limmie Pulliam; baritone Justin Austin; and Butler Studio artists soprano Renée Richardson and tenor Demetrious Sampson, Jr.
The concert will also feature choral works by a mass choir of singers from WABC, the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, and HGO, as well as a special performance from Houston’s emerging spiritual ensemble, The Voices of Houston. WABC will be honoring the First Lady Audrey Cosby, Founding First Lady Audrey Lawson, First Female Minister of Music Juanita Nash, and several of the Charter Members.
To Sit and Dream By Rosephanye Powell
My God is a Rock Arr. Stacey Gibbs
From “Behold the Star”
(Winter 2022)
"Behold the Star" was a holiday celebration in song that explored the imagery and iterations of light and light-bringing to remind us of the light within. Og Mandino states, “I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.” Stars are regarded as one of our planet's oldest sources of life. For centuries, we have retold the story of the star that illuminated the sky as “the light of the world” was born. This celestial light has continued to shine above us as a symbol of triumph and jubilation.
Behold the Star Arr. William Dawson
Monica Cummings, Soprano
Brittany Roth, Soprano
Sure on this Shining Night Arr. Morten Lauridsen
Hold Out Your Light Arr. Brandon Waddles
Darius Wright, Tenor
Jarrell Comeaux, Baritone
From “Walk Dem Golden Streets”
(Spring 2022)
"Walk Dem Golden Streets" was a concert collection of Negro Spirituals and additional songs of hope, inspired by the work of civil rights leader Howard Thurman and his research on the Negro Spiritual. In the midst of enduring cruel, inhumane conditions, enslaved Black Americans found comfort and strength in religious faith, creating the space in which the lyrics of spirituals were cast. With no prospect of freedom in sight, expression through song granted them a spiritual liberation as they leaned on the biblical promise to one day walk the streets of heaven, paved with gold.
Cert’nly Lord Arr. Brandon Waddles
Faithful Over a Few Things Arr. Glenn Burleigh