This week was busy. Between opera, Valentines day, and an awesome concert featuring the American Spiritual Ensemble, I think a lot of us here on campus are just plain tuckered out. Oh, but I forgot to tell you about the American Spiritual Ensemble!! The short of it: They were stinkin’ amazing!!!!!

The ASE is a group of professional vocalists – many of them opera singers – who band together to keep the Negro Spiritual alive. Founder and Director Everett McCorvey explained that the Negro Spiritual was the folk music of the African-American slaves, but that this piece of history is being lost. He founded the group several years ago, and they have since risen to international fame and acclaim. They sing spirituals, broadway pieces, and jazz in addition to the largely classical repertoires of the individual performers.

And my choir got to sing with them in 2 of their songs. Talk about amazing! Talk about an opportunity!!

To me one of the best things about getting to meet and interact with them was just to see how many of them are opera singers. It’s so easy as a college student studying voice to get discouraged and think you’ll never be able to make it in the professional music world. But these people brought hope to my heart: there really are opera singers out there!! And people really do pay them to sing 😀

To find out more about the ASE google them or visit  http://www.americanspiritualensemble.com/