St. Louis, MO

Washington Metropolitan AME Zion Church was organized in 1865. It began with house to house prayer meetings led by the first known Pastor, Rev. Gary Matthews. Later, in 1865 the prayer group moved into it’s first building located at Fourteenth and Market Streets, St. Louis, MO.
The choir loft is situated directly behind the pulpit. For many years, Cathedral Choir has produced celestial sounds in the form of anthems, hymns and canticles and the acoustics of the church are the finest of any cathedral in the area.

Tallahassee, Florida

The mission of the Florida A&M University Choral Music Division is to provide the highest quality vocal / piano music at the undergraduate level for music majors embarking on careers as teachers, scholars, performers or composers. It is also the mission of the division to teach non-majors and members of the community about music as a part of human culture and experience.

With its 200-plus members representing some 100 churches of various denominations from throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the DFW Mass Choir was organized on March 20, 1990 by the Rev. Armond W. Brown, Pastor of the Fellowship Baptist Church of Oak Cliff, and the Rev. Milton Biggham, Executive Producer, Savoy Record Company of New York City. Making their live recorded debut that July 14 with I’ll Let Nothing Separate Me, the choir then toured the country’s urban centers; subsequent recordings include For His Glory, Another Chance and I’d Rather Have Jesus.

Written by Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Franklin was raised by his great aunt Gertrude, having been abandoned as a baby by his mother. Gertrude collected and resold aluminum cans to raise money for Kirk to take piano lessons from the age of 4. Kirk excelled in music, able to read and write music by ear. He received his first contract offer at the age of 7, which his aunt turned down. He joined the church choir and became music director of the Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir, at the age of eleven. Despite his strict religious upbringing, Franklin rebelled in his teenage years, and in an attempt to keep him out of trouble, his great aunt arranged an audition for him at a professional youth conservatory associated with a local university. He was accepted and while his life seemed to be on track for a while, the announcement of a girlfriend’s pregnancy and his eventual expulsion from school for behavioral problems proved otherwise.

After the shooting death of a friend, Franklin returned to the church, where he began to direct the choir once again. He also co-founded a gospel group, The Humble Hearts, which recorded one of Franklin’s compositions and got the attention of gospel music legend Milton Biggham. Impressed, Bigham enlisted him to lead the DFW Mass Choir in a recording of Franklin’s song “Every Day with Jesus.” This led to Bigham hiring Franklin (at just twenty years old) to lead the choir at the 1990 Gospel Music Workshop of America Convention, a major industry gathering.

Chicago, IL.

The Fellowship Choir featuring Sister Loretta Oliver calls Chicago home, refered to by it’s members as “the ship”, Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church was founded by Rev. Dr. Clay Evans in 1950.
He has and is a leader in the Civil Rights Movement since 1965. He is the Founding National Board Chairman of Operation, (PUSH) and he held this position for five years. Reverend Evans has been a featured soloist on albums with the Voice Choir of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church and with the Voice Choir of the African American Religious Connection(AARC), winning the 1996 Stellar Award for Best Gospel Album of the Year, which included the song “I’ve Got a Testimony”. Reverend Evans retired on December 8, 2000 as the Pastor of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church and now holds the title of Founder and Senior Pastor of the church.