Trey Clegg Singers Win NEA Grant To Work with Native American Artists

The Trey Clegg Singers (TCS), Atlanta’s premiere multi-cultural ensemble, has recently been awarded a $15,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Matched by local funds, this grant will support the TCS production of “A Path Toward Healing.” Through this groundbreaking choral work, TCS will present music composed by and jointly performed with Native American composers and musicians. The NEA award in support of this dual-culture project is very much in keeping with the TCS’ solid goal of being a multicultural choral ensemble.

The TCS is one of only 15 NEA grant recipients in Georgia this year.

“We are delighted to receive this NEA funding to support our chorus in performing music by Native American composers,” said Trey Clegg, founder and music director of the Trey Clegg Singers. “Moreover, this grant will enable us to advance the TCS’s commitment to healing the divide that persists among the varied peoples across metro Atlanta and Georgia through music.

“As long-time Georgians, many of us are very mindful that Native Americans were the original inhabitants of Georgia; and the culture and traditions of this vibrant community must be an essential part of our future and of the stories we embrace as we move forward to becoming Dr. Martin Luther King’s beloved community,’ said Mr. Clegg.

“The Trey Clegg Singers ensemble was created to fully reflect the multi-cultural talents and voices within Georgia; our engagement and partnership with Native American musicians is in keeping with that mission,” Mr. Clegg noted. A major piece from “A Path Toward Healing” will be presented in the Trey Clegg Singers’ Fall Concert this September, as well as in Spring 2024.

Now on the dawn of its 8th season, The Trey Clegg Singers’ 2023-24 performance schedule will entail a series of concerts:

Fall Concert, “Fearless,” at All Saints Episcopal Church in Midtown Atlanta, September 29th;

Christmas Concert, “Festival Sounds of the Season,” accompanied by Members of The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Wieuca Road BaptistChurch in Buckhead, December 17th;

Black History Concert, “Hold Fast to Dreams,” February 2024 (Venue TBA);
Spring Concert, “A Path Toward Healing,” May 18, 2024 (Venue TBA); and the

Annual Performance at the Highlands Chamber Music Festival, in Highlands, NC, July 17, 2024.
About the Trey Clegg Singers

The Trey Clegg Singers (TCS) is an auditioned, semi-professional chorus, founded in March 2016. Based in Atlanta, the ensemble represents the City’s diverse population, rich history and culture.
Its mission is to use music as a healing force for reconciliation, equality, and justice. Always striving for musical excellence, The TCS perform music that moves hearts and informs minds. Its members represent the wide ethnic diversity of Atlanta. "They are proud to be an affirming community chorus, inviting to all expressions of gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as race, ethnicity, and age," Mr. Clegg noted. TCS strives to be a welcoming community that values all the human spirit offers.

Since its founding, the chorus has performed a diverse choral repertoire across many genres, styles and languages. During Black History Month, in February of 2022, along with guest soloists and musicians hired by Trey Clegg to comprise a predominately African-American professional orchestra -- The Trey Clegg Singers premiered a new symphonic work, "Without Regard to Sex, Race or Color," composed by TCS member Doug Hooker. The premiere of that Symphony and other major concerts are often accompanied by the 40-member Trey Clegg Concert Orchestra.

About the Founder/Director

As an acclaimed Solo Concert Organist, Mr. Clegg made his European debut in 2003 in a series of recitals throughout Germany, the culmination of which included a featured recital at the world-famous Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Trey has extensively performed Solo Organ Concerts over the last two decades across Germany, Austria, France, Russia, the Netherlands, the Caribbean Islands, and some 62 American cities. During that span of time, he has performed a total of 8 different solo tours as a Concert Organist on three continents and has toured extensively as a Collaborative Pianist for professional opera singers. Mr. Clegg's solo organ performances have been heard on National Public Radio, and his four organ solo recordings are in international circulation and are also sold at the Atlanta Symphony Store. In January of 2022, Mr. Clegg gave a landmark solo performance on the "Mighty Mo" Organ at the Fox Theatre for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Legislature. About one of Trey's local solo recitals, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote, "He pulls out the stops, and the righteous sound born in a box of wood fills every dark corner of the elegantly gloomy sanctuary. It was like the soundtrack for the first dawn."

For 15 years, Mr. Clegg taught in the Music Department Faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, ranked in U.S. News and World Report as the highest academic Historically Black College in the United States. Currently, he is on staff at The Historic First Congregational Church (UCC) of Atlanta as Organist and Director of Choirs.

Additionally, he is in his 22nd consecutive season in the bass/baritone section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus. In March of 2012, he made his vocal solo debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, singing the role of the High Priest in Johann Sebastian Bach's epic work, "The St. Matthew Passion."
In 2018, Mr. Clegg was named choral director of The Colour of Music Festival Chorale, which made its debut in Houston, Texas, at the Colour of Music Festival under Trey's choral preparation and under the baton of Dr. David Morrow. Since their triumphant debut at the Festival, the Chorale decided to stay together to form The Atlanta Afri-Classical Chorale--Atlanta's first Professional African American Vocal Ensemble.

Trey graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance (Cum Laude) from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri; the Master of Sacred Music degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas; and the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance from the Emory University School of Music in Atlanta, Georgia. His organ teachers have included Susan Baker, Dr. Albert Travis, and Dr. Timothy Albrecht. In addition, he taught and performed as the sabbatical replacement for the University Organist at Emory University during the 2000-2001 academic year.

As a composer, Trey's organ music is published by Morningstar Music in St. Louis and Fred Bock Music in Los Angeles. Trey has released three organ solo compact discs and one compact disc of organ and trumpet music in collaboration with retired Atlanta Symphony Orchestra trumpet player Larry Black. Trey's organ performances have been heard on Caribbean National Radio, American National Public Radio, and Atlanta FM 90.1.

To learn more about the Trey Clegg Singers and follow the chorale’s performances, visit their website at www.treycleggsingers.org; or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheTreyCleggSingers. You also can find many of its earlier performances on TCS' YouTube channel.

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