Past Featured Events
GospelFEST 2023
Saturday, April 22nd, 2023
5:00pm to 7:00pm
Plattsburgh House Of Prayer
63 Broad Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA
This year, the scene will be a bit different for the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir’s GospelFEST 2023. Unlike years past, the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir, aka “Plattsburgh’s best kept Secret”, will be making their way off-campus for their annual spring concert. GospelFEST 2023 will be held at Plattsburgh House of Prayer (PHOP) on Saturday, April 22, at 5:00pm. Shortly before the festivities, there will be a “Choir Meet and Greet” from 4:00pm to 4:45pm, as well as musical performances from the SUNY Plattsburgh Jazz Ensemble directed by Matt Pray. Seats are limited, so arrive early for preferred seating! This is a “Free Will” Concert! So, keep your money at home and take a seat or bring your wallet and stuff the plate; it’s your choice!
In addition to tunes that many in the region have come to love, such as “My Help,” “Excellent,” and “Hallelujah You’re Worthy,” there will be a bevy of new selections like “Shabach,” “There is a King in You,” and “There’s No Way.” Additionally, GospelFEST 2023 will include performances by the choir’s Praise Dancers, Praise Team, Step Team, and guest performances by the Voices of Faith. In addition to our regular soloists which all of us have come to love and appreciate, some new faces and voices will grace the stage with their stellar talents, such as SUNY Plattsburgh’s very own Dr. Lolita Kincade as she makes her gospel choir debut singing “My Help”. Her powerful-angelic voice is transformative! We will welcome back to the stage for the first time since COVID, the PSGC Step Team! Under the direction of Jerrique Ortiz, these student steppers will rock PHOP with their positive inspirational presentation.
The Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir is under the Artistic Directorship of Dr. Dexter Criss. Since taking the reins in 2002, Criss and the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir have traveled internationally to Japan, St. Martin/Maarten, Toronto, Montreal, and Trinidad and Tobago where they gave a private performance for President Anthony Carmona and staff. Nationally, they have performed in Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Indiana, Pa., New York City, Providence, Memphis, Stuttgart and Little Rock, Ark. The choir has shared the stage with Lyle Lovett, Darius Brooks, Myra Flynn, Daisy Jopling and Sheila Raye Charles, among others. With up to 20 performances a year, the choir performs on campus, at churches, K-12 schools, music festivals, U.S. Naturalization Ceremonies, workshops, weddings, sport events, memorials, and community events. Members perform the Plattsburgh Alma Mater and Star-Spangled Banner regularly at SUNY Plattsburgh commencement programs.
Andrea Ogle, ’09, serves as Associate Artistic Director and Choreographer; RosindaAnthony, ’08 and ’11, serves as advisor; Alexander Malsan, ’13, serves as the choir’s vocal coach. The choir’s student president is Rhoda Agyeman, ’23.
This event is open to the public and is co-sponsored in part by the SUNY Plattsburgh Department of Music, Dean of Arts and Sciences Office, and the SUNY Plattsburgh Student Association. To learn more, contact the Gospel Choir Office at 518-564-2704, or gospelchoir@plattsburgh.edu, or visit the website at www.plattsburghstategospelchoir.org, or find us on Facebook at Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir.
Common Roots: An Evening of Spirituals, Ballads & Soul
(The Unplugged Concert)
Saturday, February 25th, 20234:00pm to 5:30pmChurch Of The Incarnation Manhattan209 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
Join the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir for an evening of an historical musical reenactment of spirituals, inspirational ballads, and folk music at the Church of the Incarnation Manhattan. Common Roots displays the music of the hard working man and woman and their families. Works by Charles Tindley, Thomas Dorsey, James Cleveland, Edward & Walter Hawkins, Raymond Wise and others will be presented. Common Roots concerts are performed with only piano, minimal percussion and upright bass and the human voices.
Albeit recognizable to arguably every American citizen and many through-out the world, the negro-spirituals historical roots have yet to be completely formally accepted and studied. An historical presentation of this genre in song, dance and spoken word, will shed light on this rarely appreciated American art form. From the pioneers of gospel music such as Tindley and Dorsey, to the everlasting works of James Cleveland and the Hawkins, right up until contemporary artists such as Kirk Franklin and Mary/Mary, the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir along with invited directors, composers and soloists will recreate, in one evening, the musical tranquility of hope in the shadow of despair for generations of slaves and their descendants.
The choir will present one of Raymond Wise's concert spiritual, "No Matter What". Dr. Wise is no stranger to SUNY Plattsburgh. He was the guest conductor for two prior Common Roots concerts and workshops. "No Matter What" addresses the struggle that many slaves endured trying to find value in their very existence beyond the horrific slave culture. Additionally the choir will also present "Something Inside So Strong". This selection written by Labi Siffre in 1987 was inspired by the injustice of black South Africans during Apartheid. Like many other great works, "Something Inside so Strong" is universal and transcends time. A spiritual classic, "Swing Low", will be presented by the phenomenal Voices of Faith. The common roots of this selection and others will be shared to the audience by Janice Tobin.
The SUNY Plattsburgh Praise Dancers and Steppers will also give powerful presentations to remind us just how strong the human spirit must have been for so many forced into a life of endless struggle. Nevertheless, the slave found a way to rise up and keep their hopes and dreams high.
Piano By Nature Presents
The Key’d Up Gospel Experience: Piano, Rhythms, Ballads, and Spirituals
Saturday, February 11th, 2023, 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Sunday, February 12th, 2023, 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Historic Hand House
8273 River St., Elizabethtown, NY 12932
We are happy to bring these two concerts to you in this very special collaboration with Piano By Nature. The Key’d Up Gospel Experience, with light percussion and harmonic voices, will focus heavily on how the piano influenced the evolution of Traditional Gospel Music to its current art form. Please join us on February 11th and 12th for a deeply moving and joyful concert experience curated specifically for Piano by Nature’s audience. Join the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir as we present two unforgettable concerts of profound ‘unity through song and harmony through people.’
Motown Soulful Christmas 2022
(Stowe, VT)
Saturday, December 3rd, 20227:30PMSpruce Peak Performing Arts Center122 Hourglass Drive, Stowe, VT 05672
So nice, we're doing it twice! This time, the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir takes the Motown Soulful Christmas program to the Spruce Peak Performance Arts Center in Stowe, Vermont. In addition to the traditional and urban gospel, contemporary Christian, Caribbean, and Afrocentric music, the 50-voice choir will take on several Motown tunes including the Temptations’ version of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “This Christmas,” and “The Christmas Song,” among other Soulful Christmas classics. The SUNY Plattsburgh Praise Dancers will grace the stage with a lovely hip-hop dance that will get the audience clapping and chanting in.
Special guests include the phenomenal Montreal Steppers. Founded in 2019, the Montreal Steppers is a group that is committed to the art form of step. Stepping is a style of dance that uses the body as an instrument to create rhythms, sounds, beats through stomps, claps, and chants.
Additionally, The Voices of Faith (VOF) of Plattsburgh, NY, is a soulful quartet featuring African-American Spirituals of the south! The VOF have performed locally in Plattsburgh, Lake Placid and Burlington, and as far away as Memphis (TN), Little Rock and Stuttgart (AR), and Trinidad.
This concert will also feature some the best musicians in this area, led by Jeff Wheel (Lead Guitar), Caleb Bronz (Percussion), Thomas Carvey (Bass Guitar), Jay Lesage (Piano), Tyler Mast (Organ), Marty McRea (Trombone), Ryan Ochs (Saxophone), and Cole Picard (Trumpet).
Motown Soulful Christmas 2022
(Plattsburgh, NY)
Saturday, November 19th, 20226:00PM at Giltz AuditoriumHawkins Hall, SUNY-Plattsburgh55 Beekman Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901
The Motown Soulful Christmas concert is returning to the E. Glenn Giltz stage this November! Fresh from our 2022 Rhode Island Fall Break tour, the Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir brings this popular holiday concert back for 2022! Featuring a bevy of holiday songs, the concert brings in special guests, The Montreal Steppers, led by Plattsburgh alumnus '13 Kayin Queeley. Please join the PSGC and our guest emcee for this event, public speaker, educational coach, and Plattsburgh Alumna '10, Jacynth Joyce! Don't miss out!
Early Bird ticket sales end October 14th, 2022
Early Bird Student Tickets - $5
Early Bird General Tickets - $15
Advance Student Tickets - $8
Advance General Tickets - $18
Door Student Tickets - $10
Door General Tickets - $25