Lunch & Learn: Sacred Sounds from the Sanctuary: An Exploration of Black Hymnody around the Early Twentieth Century
About the Event
The year 2025 marks the 125th anniversary of the Johnson Brothers’ “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” As we prepare to memorialize this monumental year, join Dr. Stephen Newby and Rev. Dr. Donté Ford as they set the stage for this hymn, situating it in the larger context and history of Black Hymnody around the early twentieth century, and the broader development and influence of Black sacred music and the Black Church.
Lunch & Learn is a free in-person or online program. If you wish to attend Lunch & Learn in person, please remember a museum general admission ticket is required for entry.
Registration below.
Feb 26, 2025 - Feb 26, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST
Members Lounge and Zoom
In Person Event
Virtual Event
Speakers
Rev. Dr. Donté Ford
Donté Alexander Ford is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is best described as a musician, minister, and scholar. At Wheaton, Donté teaches principles in music and worship ministry, coaches Chapel Bands, oversees the music and worship arts offerings in Chapel worship, and serves as the director of the Worship Arts Certificate, and, since 2022, Opera Music Director and Conductor.
Donté’s many musical talents have afforded him the opportunity to serve as guest clinician/conductor, lead pianist, opera chorister, resident percussionist, and Minister of Music. He is a published composer with GIA Publications, Inc., and the founder and artistic director of Sankofa Chorale, a multi-ethnic choral ensemble that preserves and perpetuates African American choral music while performing that music alongside choral masterworks of the Western European choral canon.
As a scholar, Donté focuses his efforts on the history and preservation of Black American concert, popular and sacred music, church hymnody, congregational song, and the history, theology, and music of African American Holiness and Pentecostal movements. His scholarly work includes contributions to the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology and UM Discipleship Ministries’ History of Hymns. Currently, he is a 2024 recipient of Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Teacher-Scholar Grant awarded by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to continue his work on the hymnody of Bishop Charles Price Jones.
Dr. Stephen Newby
Stephen Michael Newby holds The Lev H. Prichard III Endowed Chair in the Study of Black Worship and is a professor of music at Baylor University, where he also serves as Ambassador for The Black Gospel Music Preservation Program. He has over three decades of experience in university teaching and administration, having previously been the minister of worship at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Director of the Center for African American Worship Studies at Trevecca Nazarene University, and a tenured professor of music at Seattle Pacific University. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Newby earned degrees in music education, jazz composition, and music composition, along with a Master of Arts in Theology.
Newby has served in church music ministries across the US for over 40 years, with notable achievements in both gospel and concert music. His compositions have been performed by orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony and Savannah Symphony, and his works are recorded by Albany Records and Maranatha Music. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Wesley Work III National Composers’ Award. A former national anthem conductor for the Seattle Sounders FC, Newby has authored scholarly works published by Rowman & Littlefield and is co-authoring a book on Andrae Crouch with Robert Darden, to be released by Oxford University Press in 2025. Newby is married to Stephanie Ashe Newby, and they have one son, Silas.
Get Tickets
Attendance is free, but tickets are required. To join us in-person, select your museum tickets for February 26 using the link below, then select Lunch & Learn: Sacred Sounds from the Sanctuary: An Exploration of Black Hymnody around the Early Twentieth Century from the add-on menu. To join us virtually, register using the link below.