TREY CLEGG SINGERS KICK OFF FALL SEASON With “FEARLESS” CONCERT

The Trey Clegg Singers, Atlanta’s premiere multi-cultural choral ensemble, will resume its Eighth concert season on September 30, with a new choral program called “Fearless: Songs of Hope and Courage.” This performance follows a brief summer hiatus and kicks off the Fall concert season for the 40-member, semi-professional choral ensemble. The concert will be presented at 7 p.m., at Decatur’s historic First Baptist Church --308 Clairmont Avenue.

“Our Fall concert offering, ‘Fearless,’ will convey the importance of exhibiting courage when faced with the many challenges in our lives,” stated TCS founder and director Trey Clegg. “This eclectic concert program will feature a diverse choral repertoire with genres spanning Modern and Classic to Indigenous and Musical Theater.”

Prominent Atlanta soprano Maria Clark will be the featured soloist for this wide-ranging choral performance by the Trey Clegg Singers. Ms. Clark has been acclaimed for her virtuosic skills of expressive singing across the idioms of Opera, Oratorio and Art Song, and has been critiqued as possessing “The Voice of An Angel.” In addition to performing locally for the Toni Morrison Society and PBS’ opera specials, Ms. Clark also has sung abroad in Europe and South America. She serves as a senior lecturer for vocal studies in the Music Departments at Spelman College and Emory University. “We are delighted to have this outstanding concert artist lead the TCS ensemble in our Fall choral presentation” Mr. Clegg said.

The “Fearless” concert program also will introduce TCS’ new engagement with Native American music artists born (or living) in Georgia. This past spring, the ensemble was awarded a $15,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support its planned collaborative work with Georgia’s Native American artists on music projects.

With a local funding match, the NEA grant will help to produce an original choral work featuring music composed by Native American composers and musicians. Entitled “A Path Toward Healing,” the ground-breaking work will be presented in Spring 2024.

“Our ensemble members are excited about this opportunity to present the work of Native American composers and other musical artists,” says Mr. Clegg. “The works of indigenous musicians and composers are among the most under-represented music in the performing arts,” he noted.

“It’s not that this music doesn’t exist -- it’s more the case that many people aren’t aware of the depth and impact of their works,” Mr. Clegg said. He notably cited the music of classical composer and pianist Jerrod Impichchaachaaha Tate, who is of Chickasaw and Cherokee heritage.

A major piece from Mr. Tate’s composition will be highlighted in TCS’ concert on September 30. Works by Tate and other Native American composers will be featured in the “Path Toward Healing” concert next spring.

“The Trey Clegg Singers ensemble was created to fully reflect the multicultural talents and voices within Georgia; our engagement and partnership with Native American musicians is in keeping with that mission,” Director Clegg said.

TCS’s Upcoming Season

Now on the brink of its Eighth Concert Season --The Trey Clegg Singers’ 2023-24 performance schedule also will include a number of performances, notably: its popular Christmas Concert, “Festival Sounds of the Season,” accompanied by musicians from The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, at Wieuca Road Baptist Church in Buckhead, December 17; its Black History Concert, “Hold Fast to Dreams,” February 2024; its Spring Concert, “A Path Toward Healing,” May 18, 2024; and its annual performance at the Highlands 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, GA, 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. TCS 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. 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 (February, 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

In 2016, Mr. Clegg followed his dream to begin an auditioned multicultural chorus open to all gifted and versatile choral musicians who share the desire to learn and perform a wide array of musical genres. Thus, the first Multicultural Chorus in the Southeast was born! The Trey Clegg Singers and The Trey Clegg Chamber Singers have already appeared in prestigious Performing Arts Festivals such as the Spoleto Festival and the Highlands Chamber Music Festival. In January of 2022, The Trey Clegg Singers performed for the Interfaith Service in the Inaugural Festivities for Atlanta Mayor, The Honorable Andre Dickens; and again, performed in March of 2022 for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens' first State of the City Breakfast at the Georgia World Congress Center. In March of 2022, The Trey Clegg Singers performed for the 90th Birthday Celebration for Ambassador Andrew Young;

In June of 2022, The Trey Clegg Singers made their Carnegie Hall Debut, alongside the Morehouse College Glee Club, the Wendell P. Whalum Community Chorus, and the Uzee Brown Society of Choraliers, all collaboratively under the baton of Maestro Dr. David Morrow.