On Nov. 9, von der Mehden recital hall hosted the Voices of Freedom gospel choir for a free concert. According to the E-Board president of the choir, this was their first concert on the University of Connecticut’s campus.
There was a virtual program available via QR code. The program lists the names of the choir singers, the track list for the songs performed with the soloists cited and Reverend and Voices of Freedom choir director Lisa Clayton’s biography. It says that Rev. Clayton is “a recording artist, composer, workshop clinician, and ordained preacher in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.” In addition, the biography says “Lisa Clayton was selected in August of 2022 as one of 60 Outstanding Alumni of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut. In September of 2022, she was nominated as the Outstanding African American Faculty member for the School of Fine Arts as well.”
After the E-Board of the Gospel Choir Club at UConn introduced themselves to the audience, they had the audience bow their heads for a short prayer.
The concert officially began with Vashawn Mitchell’s “Chasing After You,” a song about the pursuit of finding God. The sheer dedication of the lyrics, “I’m praising my way through just to get closer to you, I’m chasing after you,” as sung by soloists Zamiyah Burton and Morisa Westfield, is admirable. Though the choir is the main focus of the concert, the instrumentation of the piano, keyboard and drums are also integral, bringing more brightness and optimism. The audience clapped along and some even stood up with the choir.
After the song ended, Rev. Clayton went on stage and introduced herself to the audience. She told the audience, “We’re not the kind of choir where you stay silent, we want you to sing with us.” She then had an encore of “Chasing After You” where she got the sopranos, then the altos and finally the tenors in the audience to sing the chorus with her.
The next song performed was Jonathan Nelson’s “Our God Medley.” The choir powerfully filled the room after it progressively built up. Lyrics such as “There’s no God like Jehovah, there’s nobody like Jesus” and “He really is a great God” are simple but effective in worshipping and getting the audience to sing along as Rev. Clayton wanted them to. There was an absolutely beautiful solo at the end of the song. After the song, an audience member sang the lyric, “He really is a great God,” to applause.
A. Jeffrey LaValley’s “Revelations 19” was next. The chorus of “The Lord our God is powerful, The Lord our God is omnipotent, The Lord our God is wonderful” was overwhelmingly potent when the choir sang it all together with the audience and the band. Clayton sang a short solo at the end that was phenomenal.
Rich Tolbert’s “Never Be Defeated” was performed after, with a stellar lead vocal performance by Alexander Vereen Jr. The repetition of “Because God, He is the greatest power, we shall never be defeated” feels like a positive affirmation of self-confidence as well as faith in God . Although the instrumentation sounded solemn at first, it was triumphant. The song speeds up and sounds brighter when the choir sings “I want to see my Jesus one day.”
Three choir members, six audience members (including a high school chorus teacher who taught one of the members of the choir) and then two more choir members brought their own vocal interpretations of the repeated lyrical leitmotif “Because God, He is the greatest power, we shall never, never be defeated.” An audience member shouted, “Best concert ever!” after all of the vocal renditions.
A choir member guided the audience into some dance moves to perform as they sang the next song: Tim Godfrey’s “Very Big God” with soloists Yaa Obeng-Boateng and Emeline Irankunda, which reflects the composer’s Nigerian heritage. The song was very appealing to the ears and catchy.
Rev. Clayton had the parents of students in the choir in the crowd stand up, saying “They are doing an exceptional job.”
The second to last piece was Rev. Clayton’s own composition “Walls Come Down,” which is the second time this song has been performed so far. She prefaced the song by saying, “Sometimes things come in our minds and they have no business being there.” In the song, Rev. Clayton listed negative concepts such as depression, jealousy, lying and suicide, then she and the choir sang something like “Cast them down” afterward.
Israel Houghton’s “If Not For Your Grace” was the final song, with Rev. Clayton prefacing, “Where would I be without the grace of God?” The vocal performances from Kamari Cross, Faith Walker and Winniefred Carter were all incredible, especially the final solo. The powerful instrumentation only enhanced the vocals.
Almost immediately after “If Not For Your Grace,” Rev. Clayton decided to do an encore with the song “Freedom.” It was a fun and powerful way to end the night, the choir eventually getting off the risers and dancing on-stage in addition to singing.
After the concert ended, Rev. Clayton took a moment to thank the Voices of Freedom’s supporters, the choir E-Board alum in the audience, the backing band comprised of Cherrelle Crews, Derrick Hall and Tyler McMillan and the audience for coming out and supporting.
It’s great for the soul to focus on the things we love and care for. Seeing the audience’s reactions to the performance was touching to say the least.