Singers in the Chattanooga Boys Choir and the Chattanooga Choral Society for the Preservation of African American Song will join voices Sunday at 3 p.m. in Patten Chapel, 720 E 4th St., on the campus of UT-Chattanooga, for the 22nd annual Simmons-O’Neal memorial concert honoring two revered Chattanooga area music educators.
The concert will be held in Admission is free, but a love offering will be taken with proceeds divided between the two choirs' scholarship funds.
Edmonia Simmons, a public school music teacher, was founding director of the Choral Society. Everett O'Neal was a public school music supervisor as well as longtime director of the Boys Choir. The two directors were close friends and contributed to the development of music and music education throughout the Chattanooga community.
"This concert comes on the heels of a successful invitational performance of the Boys Choir at the Atlanta Community Choral Festival, where the boys shared the Schwartz Center (Emory University) stage with the Atlanta Master Chorale and the University of Georgia Men’s Choir. The Choral Society celebrated its 30th anniversary just recently with a special commemorative festival in the fall. This concert remains a favorite annual tradition of members and audiences of both ensembles," officials said.
Among its musical selections, the CBC choristers will perform “Cantate Domino” by Hancy Hill Cobb, the “Sanctus” from the Requiem of Gabriel Fauré, Ken Berg’s contemplative setting of “This Little Light of Mine,” and Rollo Dilworth’s arrangement of the spiritual “Walk in Jerusalem.”
The Choral Society’s program will include “Elijah Rock” by Jester Hairston, “Non Nobis Domine” by Rosephanye Powell, “This Day” by Stephen Key, and “I’ve Been Buked” by Hall Johnson, among others.
The Choral Society and the Boys Choir will combine on Moses Hogan’s arrangement of “My God Is So High” to conclude the program.
For more information, call 423-634-2299 or 423-892-1439, or visit www.chattanoogaboyschoir.org or www.ccspaas.org.