A year ago, Lansing’s Earl Nelson Singers gave their final concert. The group which sang African American spirituals had been performing in the city and around the country for 60 years.
Now, a new choir has been organized to carry on the mission of the Earl Nelson Singers. It’s called the Verna D. Holley Project, named after the original group’s longtime director. It's a part of the Transcendence Performing Arts Centers.
WKAR's Sophia Saliby spoke with LaVonté Heard. He was a member of the Singers and heads up this new group.
Interview Highlights
On why he wanted to create a new group
It didn't take much for me to know that I had an obligation to take up the torch in some way for their mission to keep the art of the spiritual alive. I owe so much of my career to the Earl Nelson Singers Company and to Mrs. [Verna] Holley. I knew I needed to do something.
On the choir's inaugural concert in December
We were calling people out of the audience to sing solos. We did music that really expanded on things that the Earl Nelson Singers might have done. We do not only specialize in spirituals anymore. We've expanded to add music from Black composers but also music that inspires the Black experience. Some of that is gospel. Some of it is jazzy, as well as the spirituals and other forms of music.
On the importance of continuing to sing African American spirituals
We are the only group like us in this area, all the way to Grand Rapids to the west and all the way to Detroit to the east. If we do not preserve the songs of a people, posterity will not be able to experience the dignity of the voices that have brought us over. I am a product of this, as I was several generations behind all of my friends in the Nelson Singers. And they taught me the appreciation for the strength and dignity that comes from this music which is the heart and soul of our people and really has been the basis for all the other genres that we appreciate as Americans.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Just about a year ago, Lansing’s Earl Nelson Singers gave their final concert. The group which sang African American spirituals had been performing in the city and around the country for sixty years.
Now, a new choir has been organized to carry on the mission of the Earl Nelson Singers. It’s called the Verna D. Holley Project, named after the original group’s longtime director. LaVonté Heard was a member of the Singers, and now heads up this new group He joins me now. Thank you for being here.
LaVonté Heard: I'm so glad to be here.
Saliby: Can you tell me about how you got involved with the Earl Nelson Singers?
Heard: Yes. Verna Holley was my piano teacher starting when I was around seven or eight-years-old and found that I had a voice. And she asked me to join the Earl Nelson Singers Company as an eighth grader.
I was their baby, and they all watched me grow up and I grew my musicianship in that group.
And I stayed in the group all through until I went to high school and stayed until I went to college and then came back and would always sing with the group when I could. And so, I was their baby, and they all watched me grow up, and I grew my musicianship in that group.
Saliby: I have to imagine it was pretty hard for you, pretty hard for a lot of members when the decision was made to end the Earl Nelson Singers. So, what led to the conversations and then the creation of the Verna D. Holley Project?
Heard: It didn't take much for me to know that I had an obligation to take up the torch in some way for their mission to keep the art of the spiritual alive. I owe so much of my career to the Earl Nelson Singers Company and to Mrs. Holley. I knew I needed to do something. I didn't know what because I was so busy.
I owe so much of my career to the Earl Nelson Singers company and to Mrs. Holley. I knew I needed to do something.
But I went to her and spoke to her about the possibility of taking up the torch for the Earl Nelson Singers Company and keeping them going, but then, I didn't necessarily feel the same connection there. I knew we needed to do something. And I said, "Well, if I start a group, I would call it the Verna Holley group," whatever it was, and we kind of laughed about that. She said, "Oh, please," you know. And so, that's where the Verna Holley Project came.
Saliby: You had your inaugural concert in December. How did that go?
Heard: We had an electric time. We used the audience to participate with us. We were calling people out of the audience to sing solos. We did music that really expanded on things that the Earl Nelson Singers might have done.
We do not only specialize in spirituals anymore. We've expanded to add music from Black composers but also music that inspires the Black experience. Some of that is gospel. Some of it is jazzy, as well as the spirituals and other forms of music. And it was just an electric time. We had to add chairs. It was great.
Saliby: Do you still talk to Verna and compare notes from former director to new director?
Heard: She is my everything and she knows it. And I know that she's going to probably hear this segment. I still kind of yield to her with my song choice, everything. It's important to me that she is pleased at how we are carrying on her legacy.
I find I turn back into a seven-year-old kid when I'm around her. She's my bestie, and I trust her. She's really held my hand and also tried to tell me to fly on, you know what you're doing.
Saliby: And can you talk about the importance of keeping these songs alive? I know this choir is a new project with new songs, new traditions. But at its core, it is still that same mission as the Earl Nelson Singers. So, why is that important to keep that going?
Heard: We are the only group like us in this area, all the way to Grand Rapids to the west and all the way to Detroit to the east. If we do not preserve the songs of a people, posterity will not be able to experience the dignity of the voices that have brought us over.
I have an obligation to keep those songs alive. But not only that, but to expand them into the next century, so that they are accessible to young people and to the community.
I am a product of this, as I was several generations behind all of my friends in the Nelson Singers. And they taught me the appreciation for the strength and dignity that comes from this music which is the heart and soul of our people and really has been the basis for all the other genres that we appreciate as Americans. Because it is the only true form of American music, the music that was born here on this soil, not brought over from Europe.
And so, we have an obligation to keep those songs alive. But not only that, but to expand them into the next century, so that they are accessible to young people and to the community.
Saliby: LaVonté Heard is the artistic director of the Verna D. Holley project. The choir's next concert is in April. Thank you so much for joining me.
Heard: Thank you.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
