The Florida A&M Concert Choir will have its annual fall concert Sunday.
The Concert Choir is open to all majors, but students have to be enrolled in the course.
Mark Butler, assistant professor of music and Concert Choir director, said the audience will get a taste of different varieties of music.
“We sing a variety of music from jazz styles to African-American spirituals and classical music,” Butler said.
The Concert Choir has been getting ready for its fall concert since the second week of school.
Concert Choir performances, Butler said, are unlike traditional gospel music.
“Choral music is different from traditional gospel because it causes for more discipline,” he said. “With gospel, you have more freedom, and choral is structured.”
The Concert Choir plans to energize the crowd with its sharp, classy vocals.
“Many students come from choral programs in their high schools and they want to continue,” Butler said.
Darian Burrell-Clay, a third-year political science student from Detroit, said he wants to expose others to different genres of music.
“The reason I joined is because it’s something that I’ve been doing for years, and I knew that I didn’t want to stop,” Burrell-Clay said. “I wanted to continue, but I do it because I really like to expose other black people to the choral world.”
Variety and exposure are the two key things Burrell-Clay wants the audience to gain.
“In the African-American community, they don’t really get exposed to choral music because a lot of African-Americans just know gospel music, so we do things that are traditional to the African-American community, like spirituals,” Burrell-Clay said.
There will be a foreign musical selection titled “Conversion of Saul” that will be sung in French. There will also be a contemporary selection. The Concert Choir, which consists of 41 people, will play 14 songs.
The choir will perform at First Baptist Church, located at 108 W. College Ave., at 6:15 p.m.