Jesus I Love You With My Whole Heart, Prof. S Henderson & UC Berkeley Young Inspiration Gospel Choir

Reverend Quincy Fieldings – Special Guest
Date: 4/17/1993

Conducted by their nationally acclaimed original director Professor Silvester Carl Henderson, the University of California at Berkeley’s internationally noted Young Inspiration Gospel Choir was formed in 1985 in an effort to earn “The Gospel Song” academic recognition as an African American art form.

In recognition of the choir’s world-renowned musical reputation, YIGC has been lauded in various media circulations. Recently on April 15, 2005, Bob Mackenzie of the Bay Area’s Channel 2 News visited a YIGC rehearsal and documented the various educational and musical elements of the choir. This footage will be used in a news segment that will cover the success of the choir and its director. Willie Monroe from the Bay Area’s Channel Seven News produced a live broadcast segment as well. Because of the choir’s excellent musical achievements, the Contra Costa Times listed YIGC on the front page of the “Time Out” section when they were made aware that the Young Inspirations would be performing at a Contra Costa County community choral celebration. This expensive section of the newspaper is only dedicated to top billed classical, jazz, R & B and country artists; thus, the coverage was essentially a donation of over $100,000 dollars.

In April of 1992, YIGC recorded their first live album entitled, The Gospel Experience. The album is placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute’s Gospel Music Division, and accordingly, they named YIGC as the “finest” university gospel choir in the nation. The choir sold over forty-four thousand copies of this historic recording. In November of 1998, The Second Gospel Experience was released, which has reached over thirty-five thousand fans. Over the last few years, the choir has disseminated the gospel song in the following areas: San Luis Obispo; Salinas; Gilroy; Redding; Fort Braggs; Palo Cedro; Pasadena; Fresno; Los Angeles; Monterey; Carmel; Mendocino; Yuba City; Pebble Beach; Lincoln City; Clovis City; Carson City; Eugene, Oregon; Reno, NV; Las Vegas, NV; Henderson, NV. and Bakersfield, California. In March of 2002, the choir presented a premier concert for the California Music Educators Association (CMEA), which is the political umbrella that sets educational and musical standards for all public schools in California. To a packed audience at the prominent Sacramento Convention Center, the choir presented a Gospel Music Lecture Concert, demonstrating all of Professor Henderson’s “Five Styles” of the Gospel Song. The choir has become the “Model” for academically approved Gospel Choirs throughout the United States. During a choir tour on April 22, 1999, the Pasadena Journal widely circulated publication stated that “YIGC erases all misconceptions of gospel vocalists aroused by members of society.” Many YIGC supporters agree upon this assertion.

On April 23, 1995, the YIGC celebrated its “Tenth Year Anniversary”. Completely filling UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, the choir raised $78,000.00 dollars from the event. The choir also holds the record for being the first musical ensemble to move from a non-academic division, to becoming an OFFICIAL ACADEMIC class in the entire University of California system. The choir became an accredited course in the Department of African American Studies and Music in the Spring Semester 1996.

The Young Inspirations has hosted and performed with celebrity gospel and jazz artists including Richard Smallwood, Daryl Coley, Walter Hawkins and the Love Center Choir, Jon Gibson, V. Michael McKay, Calvin Bernard Rhone, Michael Fletcher, Micah Stampley (psalmist for the T.D. Jakes),Charisse Nelson Mackintosh, Melanie Daniels (vocal coach for Mariah Carey), Kurt Carr and the Kurt Carr Singers, Pamela Davis (choral coordinator for Celine Dion), “Mr. Gospel According to Jazz” Kirk Whalum, Billy Porter, soundtrack vocal artist for Bette Midler’s “The First Wives’ Club”, pop star Howard Hewett, Norman Hutchins, Lynette Hawkins-Stephens, Rev. Quincy Fieldng, Helen Stephens and the Lighthouse Singers, as well as the R& B artist Vesta. The Young Inspiration Gospel Choir has also performed for Mayor Willie Brown, the Silicon Valley Bureau’s Rainbow/Push Coalition, La Casa de Las Madres, Hayward – South Alameda County NAACP, Assembly Member Ellen Corbett and Senator Liz Figueroa, Ms. Ernestine Barlow Peters ­the past Regional Director for the NAACP “Image Awards,” Jo Cazenave the District Director for Congressman Pete Starks, and even the Intel Corporation. The Young Inspiration Gospel Choir is a very high-profile ensemble with a tradition of excellence and discipline. It is a UC Berkeley student group and an audition only course in the African American Studies and Music Department. Currently there are over 2300 alumni of the Young Inspiration Gospel Choir and as the choir continues to “inspire,” we are appropriately named. For Gospel Music “INSPIRES” us all.

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