COURTESY OF UNOTES
The 2012-2013 University of Hartford Gospel Choir.
The University of Hartford Gospel Choir was founded by a member of First Cathedral Church about two decades ago. Shantal Russell, now the president and director, believes that the founders started the gospel choir to give college students an outlet and a place to freely be themselves. She says it is a place where students don’t have to pretend or put on a façade in front of their peers.
The choir is not limited to the students at the University, but also welcomes members of the community. Members are usually recruited from the beginning of the fall semester to the beginning of November. This gives the gospel choir enough time to prepare for their winter concert at the beginning of December.
Their winter concert, “A Christ Like Christmas,” will be held on Saturday, Dec. 7 in Konover. It will feature special guests from the local area and will cost $5 for students and $8 for adults.
The choir meets weekly and shares a unique bonding experience with one another with singing, praise and Bible study. Russell says that some people don’t just go to rehearsals to sing and practice with the choir but to sit and listen because they are so inspired by the choir.
Russell refers to the times the gospel choir meets as “a safe haven and a place where college students come and express themselves.”
The choir has recently won the Connecticut Music Award for best Gospel Group. The choir also will soon be singing in the studio doing the music for a film “Tobacco Burn,” which will premiere in the New York Film Festival. They have hosted previous events like the “Flesh Don’t Kill my Vibe” in GSU.
They are looking for new and innovate ways to fundraise to help fund the tour they want to attend with UConn to New Orleans for a gospel event. The event will be in March, a month before their spring concert.
Director and President, Shantal Russell is currently a senior in the Hartt School. She received a full scholarship to the Hartt School and will be graduating with a major in Voice Performance with an Emphasis in Classical Opera. She chose an emphasis in Classical Opera because for an African American it is not common.
She says, “it was out of the normal for someone who looks like me.” Like most of the seniors, Russell is experiencing senioritis a little earlier than expected and is excited to be graduating in the spring.
Russell enjoys the fact that school keeps her busy and always has things to do because it makes her feel like she’s fulfilling her purpose by helping people. Russell, from Washington D.C, was born into vocally gifted family. At the age of three she began singing and at the age of seven she began singing in the church.
She said, “I fell in love with singing and I’m still in love with it and now I’m at a different level of singing and I’m learning how to sing properly. This is a job now, its more work than what people think it is.”
She wanted to learn all the parts of singing including what it means, what your body actually does when you sing, how to do it better and how she can influence or inspire others to do what she loves to do.