Uzee Brown Society of Choraliers
The Uzee Brown Society of Choraliers was founded in 2009 by Uzee Brown, Jr., educator, composer/arranger, performer and former chair of the Morehouse College Department of Music. He contemplated that given the size and diversity of the city of Atlanta and its African American population, an additional community-based chorus such as the UBSC would be a meaningful musical alternative.
Its mission is comprised of three basic objectives: 1) to assemble, study, sing and perform for the mutual enjoyment of making music of the highest quality for all of its members and the general public; 2) to perform a wide variety of vocal music in such a way that the music of diverse cultural traditions, both sacred and secular, are heard and the heritage of African American musical traditions are preserved and understood; 3) to advocate the concept of the Uzee Brown Society of Choraliers as a cohesive force and source of cultural enrichment in the community and throughout the nation. Membership in the UBSC is by audition.
It is a Chorus in Residence at Morehouse College, comprised of diverse singers; professional singers, choristers who have many years of experience in church and community choirs, students and ardent lovers of music-making whose ages range from the 20s to the 80s. Many have worked, studied and interacted with each other over the years.
The UBSC began in the fall, 2009, assembled for the primary purpose of completing a multi-media recording project of Tikvah (a Hebrew word meaning Hope), based on the life and writings of a surviving Jewish holocaust victim, Philip Markowicz, with music by award-winning American composer, Burton Beerman. The initial gathering of the Choraliers was intended to be simply for the joy of singing and exploring new repertoire. During the completion of the recording project the UBSC was invited to perform for its first public audience of more than 4000 for the opening of the International Association of Internal Auditors at the World Congress Center.
In the fall, 2010, the Choraliers sang at Friendship Baptist Church for the opening of the Atlanta Festival of Spirituals. In March, 2011 the Choraliers joined in an unprecedented and historical collaboration of five local churches, all of varying denominations, in a two-CD recording project of hymns, entitled New Wine in Old Wineskins, with Dr. W. James Abbington, editor of the African American Heritage Series at GIA Publishing Company.
A Public performance of the CD project was presented as a commemorative concert on 9/11/2011 in the Martin Luther King, Jr., International Memorial Chapel. The Choraliers completed a 2012 recording and concert of Total Praise, selections from the Total Praise Hymnal, and a demo recording project for acclaimed film director Spike Lee for his 2013 movie, Red Hook Summer.
In 2015 they recorded My Lord’s Gettin’ Us Ready, a CD of 17 works written by Uzee Brown, and in the fall, 2015 it presented several performances in Nassau, Bahamas including Christ Church Cathedral under joint sponsorship of the Highgrove Choir and the Governor General, Dame Marguerite Pindling.
In April, 2018, the Choraliers performed a work by William Grant Still, along with Uzee Brown’s adaptation of We Shall Overcome with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center and the Marietta Center for the Performing Arts. In 2019, The Choraliers produced an album entitled Testimony, and in 2025 they released their most recent recording, which is a tapestry secular and sacred music encompassing the various music genres written and performed by African Americans, entitled Jubilation, Celebration and Thanksgiving.
In 2025, the Choraliers completed a very successful international concert tour to the UK and Ireland with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
