The City of Alcoa invites the public to join in its continuing Centennial celebration by attending a performance of the Knoxville Opera Gospel Choir at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 22nd at the Clayton Center for the Arts.
The performance is part of the City of Alcoa’s centennial band and choral series.
The choir, an education and community program of the Knoxville Opera Company directed by Jeanie Melton, is an eclectic choir that offers an array of musical pieces in its performances, ranging from anthems, to spirituals, to crossover medleys and contemporary gospel numbers. The choir is backed by several instrumentalists.
“We’re very excited to have the Gospel Choir perform as part of our series,” said David Duggan, chair of the Alcoa Centennial Committee. “The choir is simply superb. Their wonderful voices and music will be a joy for our community.”
The choir has performed throughout the East Tennessee area and has members from that area, including Alcoa. The choir is noted for conveying a spiritually uplifting message of love and joy.
“The choir also promotes our Centennial theme of the importance of community spirit,” Duggan added. “Choir members receive no compensation for their many hours of rehearsals and performances, and most of them are also members of their own church choirs.”
The talented director, Melton, has been performing musically in public since age eight, and at one time owned four music schools in the Houston, Texas area. Many of the choir members have been singing with the choir since Melton began the choir 11 years ago.
Melton has stated that the tagline for the choir is “our music matters,” and that the choir has the ability to touch every person within the sound of their voices given the variety of the sounds. She said she has watched the choir members blossom and become the community outreach the choir is today, and that she has never seen a group sing so fervently and passionately.
The multi-ethnic choir presently has 43 singers and seven instrumentalists representing eleven counties and 23 churches. The choir accepts new members in June and begins rehearsals in July for the upcoming schedule.
Admission to the concert is free, but tickets must be obtained. Tickets are available at the Clayton Center box office; online at www.claytonartscenter.com; by calling the box office at 865-981-8590; or at the City of Alcoa Municipal Building, 223 Associates Blvd., in Alcoa.
For more information about the concert, contact Patricia Tipton at the City of Alcoa at 865-380-4787.
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