The University of Alabama at Birmingham Gospel Choir will travel to Las Vegas for a spring break tour March 26-30.
Members of the choir, along with director Kevin P. Turner, D.D., will depart from the Birmingham International Airport early March 26 and will perform a short program at the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ that evening. On Friday, March 28, the choir will perform a lunch set outdoors at the Hard Rock Hotel, and Saturday afternoon the choir will be in full concert at the Abundant Life Seventh-Day Adventist Church from 5-7 p.m., with a reception to follow. All events are free and open to the public. Turner hopes the choir will be able to add more performances to the schedule.
“We have been touring eight consecutive years, and we’ve been north, south, east and overseas, but never out west,” Turner said. “So I’m excited along with the choir about making our inaugural trip to Las Vegas. As usual, it is self-funded, and we started raising money back in November 2013 while also reaching out to possible venues around that time. We ended up with more invitations than expected, but while we are out there we’ll see if we can fit one or two more places in where we can share our music.”
Las Vegas audiences will be treated to music from the choir’s “Nu-Soul City” CD, a best-seller on Amazon.com, plus cover tunes and new arrangements of choral literature. Turner says it is always a pleasure and honor to wave the UAB flag around the country and bring positive attention to the university and the Department of Music.
“Our tours have successfully recruited students to UAB and to the Gospel Choir in the past,” Turner said. “Music Department Chair Howard Irving and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Robert Palazzo support our efforts, and our student singers consistently perform at the highest level, so there is no stopping the UAB Gospel Choir as ambassadors for our program and university.”