UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Delaware’s only all-professional performing ensemble Elevation will join singers from Pennsylvania in vocal uplift of the civil-rights champion, during “A Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” to be held 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, in Eisenhower Auditorium.

The musically diverse program will feature jazz, gospel, classical, spoken-word and other works by popular and lesser-known Black composers, including Raymond Wise, Joshuah Campell and Cynthia Echeumuna-Erivo, Moses Hogan and Yalonda J.D. Green.

Elevation performances fuse traditional, classical and choral music with jazz, hip-hop, R&B, storytelling and spoken word. The group self-produces performances throughout Delaware annually, and is presented by colleges and universities, arts and culture venues, and houses of worship.

More than just performers, the organization looks to uplift and expand the definition of excellent vocal artistry. Elevation’s singer-artists mentor apprentices and support Delaware arts educators in professional development and school-based residencies.

In addition, “We participated at the World Choir Games, and we won three out of our four categories," said Elevate Vocal Arts’ Executive Director Rachel Clark. "And currently, if you Google search for “Who’s the best choir in the world?” [INTERKULTER World Rankings] says the Delaware choral scholars, which is just, I mean, who's even doing these metrics?”

The Center for the Performing Arts team recently hosted a virtual artist conversation with members of Clark and Elevate Vocal Arts CEO and Artistic Director Arreon Harley-Emerson on intergenerationality and how to nurture success in the future of a career in the creative arts.

The importance of being intentionally diverse

Clark: Affinity groups are so important, which we know, and also the ability to break boundaries in terms of ethnicity, genre, just musical stylings, and all of that is really incredible.

This is what our ensemble is about. It’s about being intentionally diverse. That word intentionally is important for us, and we also acknowledge that we are just the beginning of what we hope will begin to be a continuing movement throughout the country and throughout vocal arts of centering.

A program inspired by the work to be done

Harley-Emerson: The title of the program is called “The Dream Unfinished.” … So we talk about the ‘I have a dream’ speech. But the dream wasn't the work. So this program is actually about, what does that work look like in action and this acknowledgment that the dream is unfinished. And it’s all of our responsibility to ensure that this work continues through.

It is a program that has a gospel set. There’s a nonidiomatic set that’s in that program, so music by Black composers about the Black experience in the United States that doesn’t fall into like gospel, jazz, or hip-hop. It falls into more of a Western frame, because, you know, the Black community is not a monolith.

Seeing the value of institutional wisdom

Clark: We are big fans of intergenerational singing and intergenerational work. Particularly in the Black Church tradition. There is always and has always been a lot of intergenerational singing that’s happening there. I did not grow up in the Black church, but I grew up in church singing, and most of my music education came from watching folks who had been singing in church choir for a very long time.

So basic things, like understanding how you are holding music and sort of how you are following along there, what the verse structure is like, things like that. So, we see a lot of deep value in intergenerational singing, and understand that that can go both ways, right?

So as we continue to be part of the older generation, day by day, we are learning lots and lots from the students. And then we also understand that, of course, there is institutional wisdom that that can be passed down.

A link between generation and diversity

Harley-Emerson: All of it is really talking about what the Black experience means in the United States, and that is not all an experience of trauma and tragedy. It is also an experience of great love and great joy, with Black joy particularly being at the center of the Black experience. Intergenerational singing is just deeply embedded into communities of color, particularly the Black community.

I think one of the things we hope to honor here is that idea of orality in the Black experience and orality happens only in communal and intergenerational contexts.

Preparing for a growing creative economy

Clark: The definition of excellent vocal artistry, is making sure that people understand that there is deep nuance in all of these genres. People think sometimes about it being like 'the fast food of music,' and it’s just one note. And it’s like, no, it actually takes a lot to make it really excellent.

Really what we are doing is to change the landscape of the creative economy and making sure that we are contributing to that in a really strong way, that we are helping legislators to understand how critical this is. And it is going to continue to be critical in the upcoming years, understanding really deeply that the gig economy, the creative economy, is like the second-biggest economic driver right now.

Benefit of student-professional engagement opportunities

Harley-Emerson: I think it’s great that over the course of the day that we’re going to be working with folks of various ages. We’re going to have high school students. There are going to be college students that are going to be there, and then in our ensemble we have quite a large range of ages. The composers that are represented are going to also be [there], some of whom are still walking amongst us and are young, who were born in the 1980s and ’90s; and there will be others who are long gone, but their voices may not have been amplified in the times that they were living.

On the late Tony Leach’s intergenerational trail-blazing aesthetic

Harley-Emerson: We have very similar aesthetics to how a program is curated. And I do use that word with great intention, because it’s kind of like a museum: You have a curator who is kind of pulling these different things together so that we can tell this story that is called 'The Dream Unfinished.'

Clark: There are other niche and boutique conferences that focus perhaps just on performance practices of spirituals or just on gospel, but we are making sure that we’re really inclusive of everything, which Dr. Leach has certainly been a trailblazer in that area.

“A Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, in Eisenhower Auditorium. The concert will feature performances by Elevation, Essence of Joy, Hatboro-Horsham High School Madrigals Choir, and Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School Choir. Visit vocal tribute for more information.