“This is a rare and invaluable opportunity for our students to not only meet but to rehearse and perform with choral musicians of the highest caliber. The members of EXIGENCE are professional singers, composers, and conductors from all over the country,” says Guilford College Music Professor Wendy Looker. “Furthermore, BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color) students will see musicians who look like them represented in the ensemble, in the conductor, and in the inclusive programming.”

The choir and its director, Dr. Eugene Rogers, will rehearse for their North Carolina residency in Dana Auditorium on Guilford’s campus. They’ll also work with the College Choir in a masterclass on Tuesday and perform with the College Choir at First Lutheran Church on Wednesday. A select rehearsal time will be open to the campus community, and the concert at First Lutheran will be live streamed. Every member of EXIGENCE is fully vaccinated and will be masked while singing.

“Guilford singers have been hard at work learning pieces that Dr. Rogers sent us to prepare for the occasion: an arrangement of the South African song Kwangena Thina Bo and the Hallelujah Chorus by Beethoven,” Wendy says. “While here, EXIGENCE will rehearse selections from the concert it will perform at First Lutheran and in Winston-Salem, Durham, and finally in Raleigh for the state conference of the N.C. American Choral Directors Association. The program — "A Vision Unfolding: Hope, Perseverance, and Equality of All People" — features BIPOC composers from the past and the present, including Emmy award-winning composer Joel Thompson. Thompson is perhaps best known for his profound 2014 composition, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed. More recently, EXIGENCE commissioned Thompson to compose The Caged Bird Sings for Freedom to the famous text by Maya Angelou.”

EXIGENCE is inspired by the mission of Sphinx, a national organization based in Detroit that’s dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. EXIGENCE’s mission is to promote excellence and diversity through choral music within Black and Latinx communities. EXIGENCE achieves this by offering a platform to soloists and composers of color while inspiring and challenging audiences around the world.

[Visit SphinxMusic.org to learn more about the organization.]

EXIGENCE gives vocal artists a first-rate professional vocal experience within a context that champions the sounds of Black and Latinx composers. Selected through audition, 32 vocalists have the opportunity to use their voices as vehicles for change within the cultural landscape of concert choral and vocal music.

“Art as a vehicle for social change is a mission that resonates loudly with us at Guilford. When a choir sings with other choirs and for new conductors, much more than musical ideas are exchanged,” Wendy says. “The College Choir will engage with Dr. Rogers, EXIGENCE, and the First Lutheran Chancel Choir in building community through singing. We’ll also break bread together in between the dress rehearsal and the concert. I have learned to never underestimate the powerful impact that making music with others can have on a human, whether that human is in college, retired, or anywhere in between.”

More information regarding rehearsal and performance times is provided on the College’s events calendar.