BY SPENCER BAKER, Staff Reporter
It’s not very often that an award winning gospel choir takes the stage at Central. Singing, dancing and worshipping are all going to be present when DaNell Damon and the Greater Works choral perform at Central’s concert hall in the music building on Friday Feb. 7.
“Choir has always been a significant part in the black community,” Mal Stewman, Diversity Officer for the Center for Diversity and Social Justice, said. Stewman is the man responsible for Daymon and his choirs future performance here at Central.
Stewman is from the Seattle area and has a cousin that performs in the chorale. She is the one that told Stewman about the group. Stewman checked them out online and decided that they would be a perfect fit for a Black History Month event here at Central.
“I took the proper steps within me to unveil their greater good,” DaNell Daymon said.
Daymon worked in the music industry for over 20 years in New York. Those proper steps brought him here to start his Greater Works Chorale.
Daymon and his chorale bring their high-energy to the show whenever they perform. The choir is known for winning Verizon’s How Sweet the Sound competition in 2012 and bringing a packed Staples Center to its feet.
During their performance at Staples Center, The Greater Works Chorale brought all the energy one stadium could handle. The piece that they performed started slow and built up into a fast pace gospel piece. Daymon was singing and dancing while he was conducting the choir. The members of the choir fed off of Daymon’s energy and were freely dancing most of the time, but every once in a while, all of them would do choreographed moves that made the piece come together.
The Greater Works Chorale is “an aggregation of singers in the [Pacific Northwest] that sing professionally in various environments that allow people to discover the greatness within them,” Daymon said.
The Chorale started four years ago by networking with various singers in the Seattle area. “I put the vision in front of them,” Daymon said.
Today The Greater Works Chorale consists of 30 members that travel the country performing to promote God. They are trying to communicate God’s love through song and presentation.
“It will help with how to engage yourself in your music,” Conner Sines, junior music education major, said. “It seems like they never stand still, and their arms are always moving.”
Not only can viewers find God’s power through this performance, but it will also be something new that the music majors can look forward to.
“There are a lot of good choirs around the state but none of them inspire you like they do,” Sines said. “Daymon could have a spiritual impact for a lot of people and inspire a lot of musicians on campus to step up their games.”
The Greater Works Chorale performance is one of many events that are happening around campus for black history month. Black Student Union is putting on “Show Time at McConnell” and Monday Movie Madness is showing “The Butler.”
“One of the things we are doing in Center for Diversity and Social Justice is bring awareness” Stewman said. One way they are going to do that is bring Daymon and his chorale.
Tickets are available online at www.cwu.edu/tickets. Show time is 7 p.m.
