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Wendell P. Whalum Community Chorus History
The Atlanta University Center Community Chorus (AUCCC) was founded in 1966 to provide concert and commencement music for the Atlanta University Summer School. A notice from the late Dr. Wendell P. Whalum, the founding director of the Chorus, to a few experienced singers in the community brought an overwhelming response and they assembled each week for rehearsals. During future summers, the group developed into one that included not only the graduates of the Atlanta University, but all the undergraduate colleges in the Atlanta University Center as well as persons who had graduated from other institutions outside the Atlanta area. The initial number of twenty (20) singers has grown to as many as sixty (60), with an ongoing enrollment of fifty (50). In 1971, Dr. Thomas J. Anderson, who edited and orchestrated Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, invited the Chorus to take part in the world premier of this exciting opera. His invitation was accepted and immediate attention to this group resulted. Under the direction of Dr. Whalum, the Chorus was selected to sing during the Inauguration Ceremony of President Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C. President Hugh Gloster of Morehouse College granted space for rehearsals and encouraged the Chorus to continue. Robert Shaw, Atlanta's famous conductor (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) not only praised their efforts, but urged them to return one year later to Symphony Hall in the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center and take part in the concert presentation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. This completed, he invited the Chorus to sing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony along with his own Symphony Chorus for the inauguration of Mayor Maynard Jackson. Morehouse College and the Metropolitan Atlanta Musicians Association (MAMA) presented Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem featuring the AUCCC in a memorial for founder Dr. Wendell P. Whalum in March 1989. Many members of past association participated along with guest artists and orchestras. Under the direction of Dr. David Morrow, a 1980 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College, who holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music, the Chorus has since participated in such events as the U.S. Freedom Tour Academic Convocation for Nelson Mandela (June 1990). The program included the singing of Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika in the Xhosa dialect. In addition, the Chorus provided the music for the dedication of Atlanta's new City Hall. They also appeared in the Cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. In June 2002, the Chorus participated in The Brazeal Dennard Choral Ensembles' 30th Anniversary Concert, featuring ELIJAH by Felix Mendelssohn, in Detroit, Michigan. The Chorus also appeared in The Robert Nathaniel Dett 125th Birthday Celebration Choral Festival, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Tennessee (October 2007). (Mr. Dett was a most successful African American composer, pianist, choral director, educator, and a founding member of the National Association of Negro Musicians.) In July 2008, the Chorus performed in the Opening Day Program of the National Association of Negro Musicians' 89th Annual Convention, Chattanooga, Tennessee. |
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