Washington Performing Arts Closes 50th Season with Gospel Celebration

If you think gospel music is solely Sunday morning territory, the Washington Performing Arts has news for you. Choir groups Men, Women and Children of the Gospel will be performing a joint concert at Strathmore this Friday with the theme of renewal. The concert celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Men and Women of the Gospel, and marks an end to the 50th season of the Washington Performing Arts.

Titled “Renew: A Silver Jubilee Concert,” the show aims to inspire its audience artistically and emotionally. At a time when the whirlwind of a relentless news cycle leaves people feeling exhausted, Choir Director Michele Fowlin hopes that audience members will walk away from the concert feeling rejuvenated and empowered to live their lives with purpose.

“It can become so burdensome and overwhelming, and we as artists want people to remember the more important aspects of this life and what we are created to do, and that is to bring love, to be encouraged, to actually renew ourselves: mind, body, spirit,” Fowlin says.

While the goal is inspiration, the concert is not without a social message about civic and human responsibilities as well.

“[We have a] responsibility to take care of this earth and one another, so I’m hoping that [the audience] will walk away and be renewed, refreshed and ready to take up their torch and add their own particular dot or puzzle piece to the whole picture,” Fowlin continues.

The choir director hopes the message in the music will uplift, and the choir members themselves serve as an example to younger audience members.

“I’m hoping this concert [will help] audience members see a group of refined, young people who love to sing,” he says. “But there’s so much more to them than just the presentation, and their behavior will be manifested onstage, encouraging others within the community [to think], ‘This is a group of intelligent, focused and disciplined young people who are trying to be model citizens.’”

As for the music itself, the choirs will perform songs in a wide variety of subgenres within gospel. In addition to gospel classics that may be familiar to fans of the genre, such as work by Richard Smallwood and Marvin Gaye, the choirs will also debut new music commissioned especially for this concert.

The new compositions are titled Dwelling Place and DC Water, written by Stanley Thurston and Toshi Reagon respectively. Though the performance will feature several variations of gospel music, WPA President and CEO Jenny Bilfield says audience members don’t have to be experts on the genre to enjoy the artistic expression.

“You can come to this concert from both a spiritual and a complete layperson’s perspective, and I hope that people recognize that some of the most creative musical voices can be found in this repertoire,” Bilfield says. “And that there are people who are committed enough to it that they want to produce and express their appreciation for the music and the text by applying their best efforts to it.”

The new music is not without its own timely social messages. According to Bilfield, DC Water is a cautionary message as well as an inspirational one.

“You think about all of the water deficits between Flint and the efforts to clean up the Anacostia,” Bilfield says. “We’ve been involved with the 11th Street Bridge Project effort to connect different sides of the river. It’s a powerful metaphor in so many ways. I think the message of equity and access through this poetry is a very powerful one.”

Catch Renew on Friday, June 2 at Strathmore. Show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25-$75, and can be purchased here.

The Music Center at Strathmore: 5301 Tuckerman Ln. North Bethesda, MD; 301-581-5100; www.strathmore.org