Like any proud father, Dr. Kevin Johnson, director of the renowned Spelman College Glee Club for the past 25 years, speaks glowingly of its members, and not just for the notes they can hit and hold. The associate professor of music says he can still be impressed by their commitment to their studies, campus and community involvement, and their love of Spelman.
“For many years, I have heard the expression from them that if you don’t plan to attend Spelman, then don’t plan to visit, implying you’ll fall in love with its legacy when you walk these sacred grounds as a high school visitor,” Johnson said. “Also, many of our members were first introduced to the school through a Glee Club concert at their high school or in their hometown.”
From sharing their voices withcaptive audiences across the country to performing with Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth to singing “America the Beautiful” at the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship, the Glee Club’s 100th anniversary celebration has been nothing short of a memorable one.
Fresh off a hectic, six-city spring tour with 65 students, Johnson participated in a phone interview to discuss the 100th anniversary of the group this year:
Glee Club members serve as ambassadors for the College. Please explain how and why this is important.
KJ: On tour, performances include at churches and high schools. After we finish a concert, members quickly introduce themselves, their majors and hometowns. High schoolers who are already enthralled by the presentation can see the scope of majors, that you don’t have to be a music major or a musician. One high schooler this tour was slumped over in her chair with her feet propped up when we began. By the fourth song, she was sitting erect. So, the Glee Club is one of the strongest recruitment tools, given the attention it commands. Take a poll of the choir and half will say they came to Spelman, influenced by the Glee Club.
Describe the scope of the group’s repertoire.
KJ: Like most choirs in higher education, we try to do pieces that come from the standard women’s choral repertoire for colleges, but lately I’ve been paying more attention to including Black cultural works: Negro spirituals, funk, jazz, hip-hop and rap, but with new twists. We do it all these days. Sometimes I wonder if I’m too Black when compared to previous archived choir footage, but Spelman has a unique mission to uphold the history of African-American music and then go beyond. We are forward-looking, pushing every envelope we can find while still respecting tradition. In this, some pieces have gone viral, a forever hit on social media that technology now provides.
Note some of the highlights and range of performances before dignitaries, celebrities and national/international figures.
KJ: Want me to drop some names? President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. Aretha Franklin. Oprah Winfrey. Stevie Wonder. The Morman Tabernacle Choir. The Atlanta Ballet. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Yo-Yo Ma. President Jimmy Carter. We have traveled internationally and sang with other symphonies too and with many of the divas, including Kathleen Battle and Jennifer Holliday.
At a recent performance, attendees were mesmerized by a beautiful, unexpectedly low rendition for a female chorus. Do some members actually sing tenor, or were attendees hearing enough low-alto voices that can mimic the tenor sound?
KJ: At Spelman, we are known for our low altos. We are not your typical women’s chorus. We got that low. We got that high. We got that power. We got that funk. I have a student we recruited from Texas that’s coming in the fall. She sings lower than any female I have ever heard. Down the road, we might do a Temptations song, so she can sing like Melvin.
For those music majors, or those interested in professional vocal performance, what do you offer to help develop, but protect their voices?
KJ: We teach what they need. Those going into vocal performance generally study voice and take applied voice or private voice. They get a good amount of vocal training, and I take them from there and make them section leaders.
“A Choice to Change the World” is the tagline for the school. How has the musical selection by the same name become such a popular anthem for the College?
KJ: In 2007, the communications office alerted me that we had a new tagline for Spelman and requested me to write a song for it. I asked a mentee, Sarah Stephens, now Sarah Stephens Benibo, to assist and she came back with the lyrics. We crafted what you hear today, probably all within a month. We sing the song at the end of every concert now. It seems to want to stick around.
Name a few notable alumnae who were members of the Glee Club.
KJ: Oh, I’m bad with names and still call alumnae by the nicknames I gave them from the choir. But Dr. Audrey Forbes Manley, actress Cassi Davis, provost Dr. Pamela E. Scott-Johnson and others who are not household names were a part of the club. Also, many former students have gone on to Broadway.
How can alumnae and friends of the College “ignite the spirit of legacy” and support the Glee Club?
KJ: We are about to mount our centennial giving season this fall to raise scholarships for students, with a concert at State Farm Arena that will feature the Morman Tabernacle Choir. Then in April of 2025, we’ll hold a 100th anniversary reunion concert on campus, where the alumnae choir will join the current singers.
Two alumnae, Dr. Brittney Boykin, C’2011, assistant professor of music at Georgia Tech, and Sarah Stephens Benibo, C’2007, worship pastor at Embassy City Church in Dallas, shared a bit about their time as Glee Club members.
What are your fondest memories of the Glee Club?
BB: As Dr. Johnson’s accompanist, I wrote my first piece as a student, “Go Down, Moses,” for a composition class. Ten years later, I saw the Glee Club perform it with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and was overwhelmed. I never thought I could be a composer, and there are not a lot of Black women composers. But that’s what Spelman can do. The Glee Club really cultivated my love for choral music.
SB: There was a standard of sound, a standard of dress, a standard of character, and you wanted to uphold them for those who came before you. I remember during spring tours we actually had home-stays, where students spent nights in the homes of Spelman alumnae. They would open their doors to complete strangers and treat us like family. We had breakfast with them the next day, then got back on the road. That’s sisterhood.
Like so many before them, Boykin and Stephens Benibo made the choice of Spelman. Both made a choice to change the world. One wrote the song about it.