On this Wednesday episode of Take 5 with GPS, we feature Misty Copeland, 1st African American to be named principal ballerina for the American Ballet Theatre. Our musical pairing is South African Anti-Apartheid Song, “We Shall Not Give Up the Fight.” Learn More https://mistycopeland.com/ https://www.abt.org/people/misty-copeland/ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/misty%20copeland Sponsor Black Excellence Each episode and blog post take… Read More →
Join GPS for a Tuesday edition of Take 5, as he shares about educator and civil rights advocate Mary McCleod Bethune and sings a classic made popular by Marvin Gaye, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” by Edward and Brian Holland, and Lamont Dozier. Learn More https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune https://www.cookman.edu/about_BCU/history/our_founder.html https://www.nps.gov/mamc/learn/historyculture/mary-mcleod-bethune.htm https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mary-mcleod-bethune-vanguard-more-than-50-years-black-progress-180975202/ Sponsor Black… Read More →
Start Monday off right with this edition of Take 5, where we honor the rich legacy of Black women in history with a look at the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, American Civil Rights Activist, Community Organizer, and Speaker. Our musical pairing is “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” traditional song from the Civil… Read More →
Join us for another Thursday-edition of Take 5, as GPS highlights education activist Marva Collins and shares a song passed down by oral tradition in the Black community, “Somebody’s Hurting My Brother.” Learn More https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/marva-collins-40 http://nytimes.com/2015/06/29/us/marva-collins-78-no-nonsense-educator-and-activist-dies.html https://tpt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/7199de5c-446e-4db6-b949-d3a0d22dadcc/george-franklin-husband-of-marva-n-collins/ Sponsor Black Excellence Each episode and blog post take $250 to create and produce. Consider sponsoring a day… Read More →
Today, we highlight Janet Emerson Bashen, founder and CEO of the Bashen Corporation, a private consulting group that investigates Equal Employment Opportunity complaints under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the first African American woman in the United States to hold a software patent. Our musical inspiration is “Reach Out and Touch” by Nickolas Ashford and… Read More →
On this twentieth day in our series honoring Black Excellence, GPS introduces us to the ground breaking invention of Marie Van Brittan Brown, who created something that many use each day either when leaving their house or heading to sleep. Speaking of sleep, our musical inspiration comes in the form of a song made popular… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Jester Hairston. Jester Hairston 1901-2000 Jester Hairston was an American actor, composer, songwriter, arranger, choral conductor, Goodwill Ambassador, and expert on Spirituals. He was born in Belews Creek, North Carolina, the grandson of a slave,… Read More →
Welcome from the LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT TEAM Thank you for registering for VocalEssence WITNESS! Enjoy these free resources funded by institutions and individual donors. Scroll down to view a variety of resources created by curriculum writer Joanna Cortright and the VocalEssence Learning and Engagement team staff. We hope you and your students will use and…
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer William Boyce. William Boyce 1711-1779 William Boyce is one of the foremost English composers of church music of his era, and also known for his symphonies and stage music. Boyce began his musical education under… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Craig Carnahan. Craig Carnahan b. 1951 Craig Carnahan is an American composer whose music has been commissioned and performed by prestigious ensembles throughout North America. Carnahan received his B.A. from Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) and… Read More →
Today marks the eleventh day of 28 Days of Black Excellence created by VocalEssence Associate Conductor G. Phillip Shoultz, III. Phillip highlights the work of James Edward Maceo West, a research professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University and member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. West… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Cary John Franklin. Cary John Franklin b. 1956 Cary John Franklin is a nationally recognized composer with commissions and performances from many of the leading performing ensembles in the United States. Educated in Minnesota at… Read More →
Today marks the sixth day of 28 Days of Black Excellence created by VocalEssence Associate Conductor G. Phillip Shoultz, III. Phillip highlights the work of Granville T. Woods, a Black inventor who dedicated his life’s work to developing a variety of inventions, many relating to the railroad industry. His musical inspiration comes from the song… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Michael Abels. Michael Abels b. 1962 Michael Abels is best-known for his scores for the Oscar-winning film GET OUT, and for Jordan Peele’s US, for which Abels won the World Soundtrack Award, the Jerry Goldsmith… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Gian Carlo Menotti. This episode features Tenor Dan Dressen. Gian Carlo Menotti 1911-2007 Gian Carlo Menotti, the Italian-American composer and librettist, became the most-performed contemporary opera composer of his era. At age 7, under the… Read More →
