The SUNY Plattsburgh Gospel Choir present “A Soulful Christmas Concert” in Stowe

Family 4 pack discount available for limited time! Enter fam4 at checkout for 25% off ticket purchases of 4 or more. 

The Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir of SUNY Plattsburgh takes a Motown turn this year in its annual Soulful Christmas program Saturday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center. The concert promises to be inspirational and fun for the entire family.

Kick-off the Holiday season with energized performances by the SUNY Plattsburgh Gospel Choir, the SUNY Plattsburgh Praise Dancers, The SUNY Plattsburgh Steppers and exceptional 7-piece band led by Jeff Wheel! Everyone will take away from this concert an elevated appreciation of gospel music but also a renewed tranquility of hope and good will during the Holiday season.

In addition to the Traditional/Urban Christmas Gospel such as “Go Tell it on the Mountain”, Contemporary Christian, Caribbean-Afrocentric Holiday music such as “Halle, Halle, Halle” and a Concert Christmas Spiritual “Mary Had a Baby”, the talented 40-voice choir and 7-piece band will take on several Motown Christmas tunes such as the Temptations’ version of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Silent Night” and Nat King-Cole’s “The Christmas Song,” among other Motown Christmas classics.

About the SUNY Plattsburg State Gospel Choir

The Plattsburgh State Gospel Choir (PSGC) was organized in 1991 by students and has constantly emphasized the breadth and depth of gospel music in order to expose both SUNY Plattsburgh and the North Country to this unique American genre.  PSGC’s 1st performance in 1991 was for SUNY Plattsburgh’s Kent State/Jackson State memorial ceremony.  Even to this day some 25 years later, the choir still presents musical selections in honor of those college student’s who lost their life’s while protesting against Social Injustice.  The choir’s founder, Zadine Richardson, and a few pioneering students through prayer, hard work and sheer determination, started the choir with a passion to maintain the gospel-songs which gave everyone of them the strength and positive direction they desired while in college.   Michelle Noble-Coursey and Zadine worked tirelessly until the gospel choir became a fully recognized Student Association club.  Janet Saunders, SUNY Plattsburgh’s  became the choir’s first advisor. 

In the mid 90’s and early 2000’s, SUNY Plattsburgh’s EOP Director, Marlene Fields became director/advisor of the choir and during the time of both Bishop, Franklin Blanks, Jr and Raymond Golden were the primary musicians. The choir experienced tremendous spiritual growth and recognition during this time. Since 2001, Dexter Criss has served as the choir’s pianist, choir director and now artistic director. From 2002 to 2012, Sally Urban served as the choir’s advisor. Andrea Ogle has served as the choir director since 2005. Jeff Wheel has served as band leader since 2010 and Rosinda Anthony has served as choir advisor since 2016. In 2002, the choir added a Step Team, Praise Dance Team and a Praise Team component to the choir. The Gospel Choir now bears academic credit as INT225. The choir released their debut CD in the Spring of 2003. Since then they have released six other CDs and two DVDs. Several original pieces have been written by Dexter Criss and other students as well.

The choir actively performs on campus, in the community, and throughout the region averaging 25 appearances each year.  The choir sings at a variety of settings including colleges, campus events, K-12 schools, churches, memorial services, weddings, and other community events. In 2014, the choir participated in its first Gospel Choir Competition held at the University of Binghamton; among numerous other competing college choirs around New York State, our choir placed second. In the past years, the choir has performed in Burlington, Albany, New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Little Rock/Stuttgart, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, Tokyo and St. Maarten/St. Martin. 

The choir’s band members are exceptional musicians from the greater Plattsburgh and Burlington area.  The choir has collaborated with trumpeter Ray Vega, gospel guru Darius Brooks, clinicians such as Dr. Raymond Wise, Dr. Anthony Leach, and Ron Rucker of Japan among many others.  The choir has appeared on several TV shows including the WORD Network and Mountain Lake PBS. 

This programming is made possible thanks to our generous 2022-23 Season Sponsors:

		Joy and Tom Cronin	Edward Jones / Caren Merson
Deborah and Ron Feinstein		The Merson Family	Neil Stempel & Family
		The Stires-Stark Family Foundation