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Celebrating Diversity with Heart and Soul!

	photo by Steve Hong

Every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., professional musicians, students, teachers, businesspeople, nurses, homemakers--you name it--gather. Greeting each other affectionately (this is a family after all), choir members swap news while they await late arrivals. Finally, a hush falls as Robert "Eddie" Robinson raises his hands...and the choir bursts into soul-shaking three-part harmony, bass guitar growling, piano and percussion punctuating the phrasing. In this as in every rehearsal, the singers are transported to a realm of heart and praise, spirit and rhythm--a realm that listeners share whenever the choir performs.

Unity in Diversity

photo by Steve Hong

The Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir gathers singers of various musical experience, ethnic backgrounds, and ages to celebrate music and spirituality through the rich tradition of African American religious music. For some, the choir is a first foray into gospel singing. For others, this music is a way of life.

Led by Robert Robinson and backed by a talented ensemble of musicians, the choir's heart and harmonies invariably bring audiences to their feet in auditoriums, churches, schools, prisons, conferences, and festivals. Singular in its diversity and the power of its expression, in praise ranging from inspirational spirituals to rocking contemporary gospel tunes, the choir fills its members and listeners alike with gladness and gratitude.

The Vision

Just four months after its first rehearsal in early 1990, this community-based, multi-cultural choir swept the competition to win first place in the prestigious Amateur Talent Contest at the Minnesota State Fair. Amateur no more, the choir returned to the State Fair a year later to present 13 concerts--and completed its first professional studio recording that same summer. Since then, the choir has thrilled audiences at hundreds of events in venues as varied as the Historic State Theater, the Orpheum, Central Baptist Church in St. Paul, the Ordway Theater, Red Wing Correctional Facility, People Serving People 410 Homeless Shelter, the Governor's Mansion, St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, and the Minneapolis Metrodome.

Since its inception, the choir has maintained its commitment to be a community resource. In recent years it has received substantial support from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the U.S. West Foundation, and the St. Paul Foundation’s African American Community Endowment Fund to bring its music and message to prisons, homeless shelters, and inner-city and rural communities.