The Winston-Salem State University Choir is accustomed to being front and center. The University Choir was the first student organization on campus, back in 1892. Their recent performances have included appearances with the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Dvorak Symphony in Prague, Czech Republic. The choir program has achieved wide recognition from traveling the Northeast and Midwest on a 10-city tour.
The choir had one of its largest performances yet on Sunday, April 20, when the singers performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.
The last performance of the semester will be at 9:45 a.m. Saturday, May 10, at LJVM Coliseum for Spring Commencement. Erica Mack, a sophomore, has been involved in choir and the Burke Singers for two years.
“Choir enables me to travel, see new places, meet other musicians and develop life-long friendships,” she said.
This school year the choir performed at coronation, Founder’s Day, Scholar’s Day and at Baptist Hospital. Auditions are held between fall and spring semester. The choir is more active in the spring semester, especially during the time of their Spring Tour.
Joshua Lockhart, a member of the University Choir and University Men, has been singing for years. Lockhart is also a spring 2007 inductee into the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity. “Anybody can sing, but being in choir helps you to have discipline to sing various styles well,” he said.
Lockhart and Mack encourage others to join the choir program.
“If you have a love for singing or a love for performing, then choir is the best way to express it,” Lockhart said.
Choir director D’Walla Burke said that performing recently with the Winston-Salem Symphony was a “door opener” for the program. Burke is the first African-American female to have a conducting debut through the Carnegie Hall Series.
WSSU offers four choral organizations, which include University Choir, University Men, University Women, and the Burke Singers. In order to be a member of the University Choir you must audition. The Burke Singers, hand selected by the choir director, is an elite group of women who sing spirituals about prejudices and injustices of all groups of society.
“HBCUs are the sanctuary for African-American composers and arrangers,” Burke said. “University Choir sings several selections composed during the times of slavery. They help to reinforce our heritage and legacy.”