Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir unmasked

Apr. 1—PLATTSBURGH — The Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir will perform bare faced at the 2022 Spring Finale Concert live on the Hartman Theater stage Saturday evening.

"This will be the first show since the pandemic," Dr. Dexter L. Criss, professor of chemistry and choir artistic director, said.

"The choir will sing without masks. We will encourage but not require the audience to wear masks. This will be the first show where it looks like things are back to normal."

Andrea Ogle '09 serves as associate artistic director and choreographer; Alexander Malsan '13 serves as the choir's vocal coach; and Rosinda Anthony '08 CAS'11 serves as adviser to the choir.

'SEE WORDS FLOWING'

The audience will be able to see and experience the choir more like in times past.

"You can see the words coming from their mouths," Criss said.

"I think we all have kind of taken that for granted that when we sing, we literally see words flowing from people's lips. We haven't been able to do that for awhile."

The 6 p.m. concert features contemporary and traditional gospel music, spirituals of African-American culture, and inspirational ballads.

Works by T.D. Jakes, Richard Smallwood, Vincent Bohanan, Luther Barnes, James Cleveland and Hezekiah Walker will be performed as well as an original composition, "Into the House," which the choir performed at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 2017.

The concert will include several gospel choir alumni, including Annie Lecompte '15, who will sing "So You Would Know" by Al Hobbs.

Students Nicole Massaro, Violet Mawere and Jerrique Ortiz will solo along with Brett Carpenter '99 and Gina Lindsey.

"The funny thing is it's been a couple of years that we've been wearing masks, I have students who I've only seen with masks on," Criss said.

"So, I haven't seen them with the masks off, so I'm be able to see what they look like."

STUDENT SOLOISTS

The concert will also feature SUNY Plattsburgh's Alumni Band, led by Latin-percussionist Josue De Luna Hilario '20.

"This concert will feature the students more than normal," Criss said.

"The first half of the show is all student soloists. One student Jay Ortiz, he is a fiery little fellow, although the little fellow is 6' 3." He's going to be a crowd favorite, I'm sure.

"We have one young lady named Jerusha Chipingo. She is from Malawi. She is an exchange student. So if there is something really special, it's she. Once again because of COVID, two things happened with my choir. One, we wear masks, and then two we only have rehearsal once a week not twice a week.

"So, I don't have the same amount of interaction that I normally have with the students, and the concert is so early compared to years past."

Last week, Criss found out how wonderful her voice is.

"Normally, I would have known by now," he said.

"She definitely has that praise and worship atmosphere about herself. She will be someone who will really bring a strong spiritual awareness to the concert. She is leading on a couple of songs. She is only here one semester, so she's going to make a great impact in her one semester."

The first half of Saturday's program includes: "Let's Just Praise the Lord" with soloist Jerrique Ortiz, "Great God. Great Praise" with soloist Criss, "Total Praise" with Alex Malsan's directing debut, "Fully Committed" with soloists Chipingo, Andrea D. Ogle and Nicole Massaro, "Every Praise" with soloists Violet Mawere and Chipingo.

"For Jerusha, this is something she would only see on TV, being part of a gospel choir like this," Criss said.

"She's extremely excited that this is going to happen, which is what college is all about, right, having opportunity to have experiences that you wouldn't normally have back home."

POP SONICS SYNTHESIZED

"Fully Committed" was composed by Luther Barnes.

"Back in the '80s and '90s, Luther Barnes probably had more number one gospel hits than anybody else," Criss said.

"He is not a well-known artist. He comes out of the quartet tradition, but he was able to make that bridge between his quartet arrangements and then making these choir arrangements, which were very, very powerful."

Barnes synthesized the contemporary pop sound of that time and applied those sonics to the choruses that he was writing.

"There are just so many songs that he wrote, 12 songs at least, that he wrote that if you would change the words you could think it was a love ballad," Criss said.

"He's still alive. He was a force to be reckoned with back in those days. Once again, this all pre-dates Kirk Franklin. People forget there was music before Kirk Franklin, you know."

PRAISE DANCERS/VOICES OF FAITH

The Gospel Choir Praise Dancers, led by senior Danielle Criss, will perform a liturgical selection.

"We are bringing the Praise Dancers back," Dr. Criss said.

"Danielle, my daughter, has brought together about six young ladies."

Special guests include The Voices of Faith of Plattsburgh, a vocal quartet, founded by the professor's mother, Bobbie J. Criss, performing African-American spirituals of the South, "Wade in the Water" and "He'll Understand It."

"We're more traditional gospel and contemporary gospel," he said.

"To make sure the concert had a holistic approach to what we're doing, I asked my Mom's group to come on board. I wanted to make sure we had something for everybody if possible if we can.

"We don't have rap gospel. I think there is a genre called ghetto gospel. We have classical gospel, you know, 'Total Praise,' which we've done several times. But we haven't done that in awhile because COVID just minimized what we could do."

'A BELL RINGER'

Following intermission, the concert's second half features: "Into the House" with soloist Barbara Simmons-Criss, the professor's wife, "Pass Me Not" with soloist Brett Carpenter, "For the Rest of My Life" with soloist Gina Lindsey, "So You Would Know" with soloist Phylicxia J. Moore-Reed, "You Should Be a Witness" with soloist Warren Middlemess, and "I Need You to Survive — 'A Tribute to Ukraine'" with soloist Dr. Dexter L. Criss.

Hobbs' "So You Know" was written for the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMA), an international convention founded by the Rev. James Cleveland.

"It was commissioned by them and orchestrated by James Cleveland," Dr. Criss said.

"It's a song that was not directly written by James Cleveland, but it was commissioned for his convention. It's going to be an amazing song. It's a strong ballad. It's like a Thanksgiving song. There aren't many Thanksgiving songs. There are a lot of Christmas songs.

"It's a song that is going to be performed by Phylicxia J. Moore-Reed, who is actually from Burlington. She is a bell ringer. She is a very powerful singer and really knows how to bring out the power of those kind of songs."

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WHAT: 2022 Spring Finale Concert. The Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir's featuring Praise Dancers and special guests The Voices of Faith. Hosted by Dr. Dexter Criss, Professor of Chemistry and Artistic Director of PSGC.

WHEn: 6-8 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: SUNY Plattsburgh's Hartman Theatre, Myers Fine Arts Building, 26 Rugar St., Plattsburgh.

ADMISSION: Tickets are available online at www.plattsburghstategospelchoir.org Advanced Tickets can be purchased at The Christian Bookstore (Plattsburgh) and the Gospel Choir Office (Hawkins 133). Advance Online Tickets: General $15, Students $8 Door Tickets: General $20, Students $10 Free to children 5 and under but must share a seat with an adult.

SPRING 2022 PLATTSBURGH STATE GOSPEL CHOIR

SOPRANOS

Rosinda Anthony, Barbara Criss, Peculiar Joseph, Belicia (Belle) Morley, Andrea Ogle, Nora Ray, Janice Tobin and Sally Urban.

ALTOS

Rhoda Agyeman, Laurie Barnett, Emily Boadway, Jerusha Chipingo, Danielle Criss, Princess Danso, Angelic Fajardo Feliciano, Kathleen Gill, Keely Huling, Molly Kasriels, Gina Lindsey, Nicole Massaro, Suzanne Monzel, Phylicxia J. Moore-Reed, Regina Sutphen and Denise Wylie.

TENORS

Brett Carpenter, Bobbie Criss, Alexander Malsan, Malerie Mason, Violet Mawere, Warren Middlemiss, Allan Stafford, Desiree Terrell amd Kidist Senay Yemerou.

BASS

Dan Albrecht, Dajon Buckley, Jerrique Ortiz, Chris Sarkis

PRAISE DANCER

Danielle Criss (Leader), Emily Boadway, Jerusha Chipingo, Keely Huling, Nicole Massaro, Rhoda Agyeman and Vivi Mawere.