American Spiritual Ensemble
Saturday, January 10, 2026 @ 7:00 pm
Tickets go on sale June 23, 2025
Subscribe now to Music Worcester’s season for early seating access to save up to 55%.
General Admission
Adult: $50
Student: $20
Youth (18 & under): $10
Tickets include free parking
Mechanics Hall:321 Main St, Worcester
Thank you to the following sponsors:
American Spiritual Ensemble
“Worcester has such a vibrant arts community. I’m excited to be a part of this lively musical community and create special memories for all.” (Everett McCorvey)
Founded by Everett McCorvey , Music Worcester’s 2026 Artist in Residence , American Spiritual Ensemble performs across the world celebrating the roots of American music – the Negro Spiritual . Negro spirituals are folksongs that emerged in the American South and were passed through oral tradition, shared in and outside the church. An element of the spiritual that lives on is the use of “call-and-response” (when singers repeat the leader’s sung lines) in music. While some spirituals use biblical imagery and reference, others don’t; the history of this music is rooted in strength, the search for freedom, and community.
Join Music Worcester in celebrating the roots of Negro Spirituals and the premiere of Artist-in-Residence Everett McCorvey.
ABOUT
The mission of the American Spiritual Ensemble is to preserve and continue the tradition of storytelling through the performance and preservation of the American negro spiritual. Performing these spirituals serves as a tribute to the many lives lost or destroyed during slavery in the United States; a horrible time for human kind. These songs, a combination of African, American, and European traditions, create a new type of melody in which a sense of identification was created within the enslaved community. These songs now stand as a testament of the strength found through faith during times of hardship as well as a unifying force among all peoples. These songs are beloved all around the world.
The American Spiritual Ensemble commits to aiding in the preservation of these beautiful melodies through performances worldwide as well as through education in the form of: lectures, master classes and vocal instruction for educational, religious, and community institutions worldwide.
The American Spiritual Ensemble was founded in 1995 in order to maintain and honor the music pioneered by enslaved African people. ASE is a critically-acclaimed ensemble that is dedicated to performing provocative, dynamic concerts around the world celebrating the American negro spiritual. Additionally, ASE frequently visits educational institutions in order to teach students about the history and traditions of enslaved people in America and their spirituals. ASE also presents master classes, television performances, radio performance, and interviews on the music of the American negro slave.
Everett McCorvey
Everett McCorvey
, a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and a graduate of the University of Alabama where he received his degrees including a Doctorate in Musical Arts. He has given performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, Teatro Comunale, Florence, Italy, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, England, and in over 23 countries.
He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble, a professional Ensemble dedicated to the performance and preservation of the American Negro Spiritual and he is the Conductor and Artistic Director of the National Chorale and Orchestra of New York City, a professional organization dedicated to performing the titans of the classical choral repertoire. He was recently appointed as the inaugural Principal Guest Conductor at Opera Columbus. Opera Columbus (Ohio, USA).
In his home state of Kentucky, he is the Chairman of the Kentucky Arts Council and nationally, he is an advisory panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. McCorvey also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Sullivan Foundation of New York, an organization dedicated to identifying gifted young opera singers in the early stages of their professional careers and helping them develop through a unique program combining audition awards with continuing support for learning new roles.
He has served on the faculties of the New York State Summer School of the Arts, American Institute of Musical Studies, Graz, Austria, and Bay View Music Festival as co-opera conductor and co-director of the American Negro Spirituals Intensive Program. He holds position of the OperaLex Endowed Chair of Opera Studies and Professor of Voice at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky
Recent conducting stints include SANCTUARY ROAD by Paul Moravec and Pulitzer Prize Librettist Mark Campbell with Virginia Opera this past February of 2024; Handel’s MESSIAH at the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in December of 2023; CARMEN by Bizet in October of 2023 with Opera Columbus; SUOR ANGELICA and GIANNI SCHICCHI with the Bay View Opera Festival in the summer of 2023; MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES with Kentucky Opera in November of 2022; The World Premiere of THE SECRET RIVER by Stella Sung and Mark Campbell with Opera Orlando in December of 2021 as well as conducting the Dvořák Symphony #9 in Prague’s Smetana Hall with the North Czech Philharmonic and the Grand Finale Opera Gala at the Mythos Opera Festival 2018.
Upcoming concerts include conducting THE THREE PENNY OPERA by Kurt Weil with Opera Columbus, THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE by Chandler Carter with the libretto by Diana Solomon Glover with Kentucky Opera, and TREEMONISHA by Scott Joplin with Opera Orlando. McCorvey served as the Music Director and Conductor of the World Premier of BOUNCE, The Basketball Opera, conceived and directed by Gretha Holby with the lead composer Glen Roven and author and librettist Charles R. Smith, Jr. Additional music for BOUNCE was written by Tomas Doncker and West Side Story Film Star Ansel Elgort.
Dr. Mccorvey is married to soprano, Alicia Helm and they have three children.
June LeBell, YourObserver
“the most heavenly, divine sound of voices soared around us with a spirit, velocity and blend unlike anything – and I mean anything – I’d ever heard.”
American Spiritual Ensemble
Learn more here
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