"Always", UCB's Young Inspiration Gospel Choir - Saint Paul Baptist Church Concert (Sacramento, Ca)

Dr. Sherrie Lockhart - Johnson, Soloist/Student Director
Saint Paul Baptist Church, Sacramento, California - Concert Host
Date: March 5, 1994
Disclaimer: Professor Silvester Henderson is not the author of any music in this video and or art graphics. Professor Henderson does not hold rights to any of the music in this recording and or art graphics.
Biography:
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, the Young Inspiration Gospel Choir has been lauded in various media circulations. On April 15, 2005, Bob Mackenzie, from the Bay Area's Channel 2 News, visited the rehearsal of the Young Inspirations, and documented various musical idioms to share with local and national TV viewers, the success of the choir and its director. Willie Monroe, also from the Bay Area’s Channel Seven News, has produced a live TV broadcast. 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's community choral celebration. This section of the paper is only dedicated to top billed classical, jazz, R & B and country artist. This was in essence 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 fourty-four thousand copies of this historic recording. In November of 1998, The Second Gospel Experience was released, which has been shared by over thirty five thousand purchasers. Each semester, the choir conducts an educational tour to offer inspirational performances for audiences at various public and private schools, churches and the general community. 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 April 22, 1999 earlier choir tour, the "Pasadena Journal", the major area newspaper stated the following about the choir:
"YIGC erases all misconceptions of Gospel Vocalist aroused by members of society"
On April 23, 1995, the Young Inspiration Gospel Choir celebrated its "Tenth Year Anniversary", drawing hundreds of former students from all over the country. Completely filling the Zellerbach Hall, the choir raised some $78,000.00 dollars that evening. The choir also holds the record for being UC Berkeley's first musical ensemble to move from a non-academic division, to becoming an "OFFICIAL ACADEMIC" class. The choir became an accredited course in the Department of African American Studies and Music, at the start of the Spring Semester, 1996. On April 15,2000, the NAACP with and "Outstanding Music Achievement Award" honored the YIGC for their dedication to use Gospel Music as a "Tool" for promoting Multicultural Unity at UC Berkeley and abroad.
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 noted T.D. Jakes), Charisse Nelson Machintosh, Melanie Daniels , Kurt Carr and the Kurt Carr Singers, Pamela Davis (choral coordinator for Celine Dion), "Mr. Gospel According to Jazz" Kirk Whalum, Billy Porter, pop star, Howard Hewett, Norman Hutchins, Lynette Hawkins-Stephens, Rev. Quincy Fieldng, Helen Stephens and the Lighthouse Singers. The Young Inspiration Gospel Choir and as the choir continues to "inspire," we are appropriately named, for Gospel Music "INSPIRES" us all