Students raise their voices in Artistic Sounds of Praise

    A new choir will be raising their voices at GCSU. Artistic Sounds of Praise is a choir with members singing both traditional and contemporary gospel music.
    The Choir is directed by Willie Culones, who created the group as a high school student.   
    “I’ve always been into gospel music since I was a kid,” Culones said. “I started it in 10th grade, and I kind of kept it going from there. Just seeing what other folks and other choirs do well kind of influenced me.”
    When Culones started the choir all of the members were high school students.
“It had always been high school students, but this past year (we included) college students,” he said.
 Students from GCSU who are members of the choir include sophomores Roderick Sylvester, a middle grades education major, and Karla White, a chemistry and pre-pharmacy major, and freshman nursing major Marlon Washington.
White joined ASOP last spring when she was recommended to Culones by Washington.
    “I joined ASOP because I love to sing and gospel is my genre of choice,” White said. “I believe God has blessed me with a nice voice to use as an instrument to worship him, lift the spirit of others and to be a witness.”
    Sylvester also became a member through Washington, who introduced him to Culones.
    “Willie told me about how he was trying to start a choir for the school and wanted to know if I was interested. Of course I said yes. I’ve really enjoyed it thus far,” Sylvester said.
    The choir has grown by word of mouth and by Culones’  personal recruitment eforts.   
    “Most of the people I have now heard about me from somewhere and they come up to me,” Culones said. “I have no problem walking up to folks and just asking them.”
    ASOP will host a concert on Nov. 18 and will perform at several other events throughout the community. The group performs in Baldwin County  and the surrounding area. Past performances include the Rites of Passage program at GCSU last Spring.    White said she enjoys being a member of ASOP and believes that it has benefited her.
    “I really enjoy being a part of a group that is professional and talented. I’m learning lots of new techniques and my sound has improved since I’ve been a part of ASOP,” White said.
Sylvester said he also enjoys being a part of ASOP, even though it is challenging at times.
    “The people are all really cool and nice, and that’s what I enjoy best about it,” he said. “It’s really hard sometimes when we are learning the material, but it makes things a little easier when you are surrounded by people with energetic and fun spirits.”
    Culones wants to help his members become better singers and his aim for the choir is success.   
“My goal is to take this choir to the next level, and to teach the people that are in my choir what they don’t already know,” Culones said. “I just want to make it a successful thing.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 29 2006. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry