A podcast highlighting young musicians will focus on a group of students from John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School.
NPR’s “From the Top” is a monthly podcast showcasing the “music, stories and unique humor of America’s best young classical musicians,” according to its website. Davidson’s chorale will be featured for the podcast’s Juneteenth episode.
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Phillip Streetman said he received an email from Megan Snow, “From the Top” director, expressing an interest in interviewing some of his chorale members.
“She said she googled ‘best choirs in America,’ and Davidson came up,” he said.
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From there, she found the chorale’s YouTube channel. When she heard a 2020 recording of 2021 graduate Zanaiah Billups singing “There is a Balm in Gilead” and then the group’s rendition of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence,” she knew it was the right group to feature, he said. “From the Top” only features one choir each year.
Streetman made the arrangements to connect Billups and 2020 graduate Sierra Hall, who was the chorale president at the time of the recording, with Snow. Kevin Olusola, a beatboxer in the a cappella group Pentatonix, conducted the interview May 12.
The podcast will include interviews with Billups and Hall, as well as the musical number, “There is a Balm in Gilead.”
The podcast highlights Juneteenth, a holiday observed on June 19, which is also known as Emancipation Day, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
“This made me very proud of my students’ accomplishments,” said Streetman. “It builds on the legacy of Dr. (James) Dunaway and Dr. (Timothy) Powell who were here before me.”
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The chorale is an elite group of auditioned singers who’ve performed in multiple countries and earned numerous awards.
Under Streetman, the group has performed in Ireland and Spain. The chorale performed at New York’s Lincoln Center in 2011 and at the National Gallery of Art’s concert series in Washington, D.C. in 2008.
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Streetman said he’s hopeful to take the group to other performance venues next school year depending on the guidance available from the school system.
NPR’s “From The Top” podcasts are available at https://www.npr.org/podcasts as well as Google, Apple and Spotify podcasts.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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