ROSEPHANYE POWELL

Dr. Rosephanye Powell has been hailed as one of America’s premier women composers of solo vocal and choral music. She has an impressive catalogue of works published by some of the nation’s leading publishers, including the Hal Leonard Corporation, the Fred Bock Music Companies, Gentry Publications, Oxford University Press, Alliance Music Publications, and Shawnee Press. Dr. Powell’s works have been conducted and premiered by nationally and internationally renowned conductors and have been premiered at distinguished halls around the country, including Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, and Spivey Hall, to name a few. Dr. Powell’s works have been commissioned by professional choral ensembles, including Cantus and Chanticleer, the Grammy award-winning men’s vocal ensemble.

Dr. Powell is commissioned yearly to compose for university choruses, professional, community and church choirs, as well as secondary school choruses. Her work has been auctioned by Chorus America and her compositions are in great demand at choral festivals around the country, frequently appearing on the regional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, as well as Honor Choir festivals. Dr. Powell’s compositions include sacred and secular works for mixed chorus, women’s chorus, men’s chorus, and children’s voices.

Recent commission and premiere highlights include: Quiet Revolutionary, a three-movement work for SATB chorus and piano commissioned by Harvard University choirs; Love Will Make A Way (SATB) premiered by the Metropolitan Youth Chorale of New York at Lincoln Center, NY; Get Busy (SATB) premiered and conducted by the composer at Carnegie Hall, NY; A Christmas Medley (SATB), commissioned by Chanticleer; I Want to Die While You Love Me (SSAA), composed for the ACDA Women’s Choirs Commission Consortium; Gospel Trinity (SATB), a four-movement work for narrator, chorus, piano and orchestra, commissioned by the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts/Fuller Theological Seminary (CA) and premiered at the Lincoln Center, NY; With What Shall I Come (SATB), composed for the St. Olaf Choir and premiered at Carnegie Hall; The Cry of Jeremiah, a four-movement sacred work for narrator, SATB chorus, organ and orchestra, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists, premiered at the Lincoln Center, NY; and Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit, an SSAA spiritual arranged for The Sofia Chamber Choir “Vassil Arnaudov”- Bulgaria, Southeastern Europe.

Dr. Powell serves as Professor of Voice at Auburn University. An accomplished singer and voice professor, Dr. Powell’s research focuses on the art of the African American spiritual and voice care concerns for voice professionals (specifically, music educators, choral directors, and choral singers). She travels the country and internationally presenting lectures, song demonstrations, and serving as a workshop clinician, conductor, and adjudicator for solo vocal competitions/auditions, honor choirs, choral workshops, and festivals.  She has received numerous awards including the “Living Legend Award” presented by California State University African Diaspora Sacred Music Festival in Los Angeles. She was listed in the first edition of the international publication Who’s Who in Choral Music, as well as in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and Outstanding Young Women in America.

WILLIAM POWELL

Dr. William Powell serves as director of choral activities at Auburn University. As a Charles W. Barkley Endowed Professor, he teaches choral-related courses, and he conducts the Chamber Choir, Men’s Chorus, Concert Choir, and co-conducts the Gospel Choir with his wife, Dr. Rosephanye Powell. His choral arrangements are published by Fred Bock Music, Hal Leonard, and Oxford University Press. Additionally, Powell is editor of “The William Powell Choral Series” released by Gentry Publications in 2015. He has guest-conducted throughout various parts of the United States and abroad, including several Lincoln Center performances with Distinguished Concerts International-New York. Powell also serves as a regular adjudicator for various choral festivals such as Festival Disney.