WSSU to host two-day celebration of African American sacred music

Winston-Salem State University will celebrate scholarship and song during the James A. Gray Musical Extravaganza, a two-day event honoring the rich traditions of African American sacred music. The celebration will take place October 24-25, 2025, and is free and open to the public.

The two-day event begins October 24 with a lecture by Dr. Braxton Shelley, professor of music at Yale University. Shelley’s talk, “From Tuning Up to Tuning In: Sounding Scripture in the Gospel Imagination,” will explore the intersections of sound, spirit and scripture in gospel music. The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. in the RJ Reynolds Center, 1030 Rams Drive, Room 136.

The celebration continues October 25 with “Singing the Scriptures with HBCU Choirs,” a musical extravaganza featuring choirs from Winston-Salem State University, Johnson C. Smith University and North Carolina A&T State University. The concert is from 2 to 4 p.m. at United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church on Metropolitan Drive in Winston-Salem.

The Winston-Salem State University Choir, known as the Singing Rams, is the university’s oldest student organization and a premier ambassador for WSSU. Under the leadership of Maestra D’Walla Simmons-Burke since 1989, the Grammy-nominated ensemble has performed nationally and internationally, recorded 11 albums, collaborated with major symphony orchestras and continues to inspire audiences with a repertoire that spans spirituals, classical masterworks and contemporary compositions.

For more information, please visit the James A. Gray Musical Extravaganza webpage.