Choirs, soloists to be in spotlight for 10th annual Gospel Fest at BGSU

The Bowling Green State University Gospel Choir, organizer of the festival, is among the groups to perform at the event next weekend. Groups from across the state are on the event’s schedule.

OLIVIA HOUSTON PHOTOGRAPHY

The Bowling Green State University Gospel Choir, organizer of the festival, is among the groups to perform at the event next weekend. Groups from across the state are on the event’s schedule.

BOWLING GREEN — The gospel choirs of six Ohio universities, along with singer/songwriters Amante Lacey, Jonathan McReynolds, and K.J. Scriven, are on the bill for the 10th annual Gospel Fest at Bowling Green State University.

Lewis

The two-day event, for which the Bowling Green Gospel Choir is host, is to feature concerts Friday at 7 p.m. and Jan. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Ballroom.

“The first night is college night,” said festival coordinator Ashley Lewis, 21, of Detroit. She is a senior international business and marketing major at BGSU and a soprano in the choir. “We have colleges from all across Ohio. They will perform individually.”

There will also be “a lot of local talent,” Miss Lewis said, “different gospel groups, different genres.” Included are a high school gospel choir from Toledo, a praise and worship team from Dayton, and a Dayton dance group. The college choirs are from Akron, Bowling Green, Cedarville, Ohio State, and Wright State universities.

“One of my favorite parts,” of the weekend, Miss Lewis said, “is, all the [university] choirs stay the night with us. So Saturday morning we get up, it’ll be around 200 students, we all learn some songs, we’re gonna go eat together and then we do an icebreaker, getting to know each other, a unity thing.”

Teaching the songs will be Isaiah Templeton of Dayton, director of the workshop choir and a Gospel Fest alumnus.

“Saturday night is a diverse schedule,” Miss Lewis said. “The national recording artists [Mr. Lacey, Mr. McReynods, and Mr. Scriven] all are going to perform. Before the artists come on and close out Gospel Fest, the workshop choir comes on stage and we perform the songs we’ve learned together as a group. It’s really awesome to see all of us in uniform and being able to pull it together.”

Gospel Fest is organized by the students in the Bowling Green Gospel Choir, who do their own fund-raising for the festival. Tickets, available at the door, are $15 for two nights or $10 for one night for the general public, and $11 for two nights or $7 for one night for students and BGSU alumni.