Academic Class Offering.pdf
2012 Chapter Anniversary Ad Letter.pdf
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Greetings Friends and Supporters
In celebration of our 36th Anniversary, The Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc., Atlanta Chapter will be hosting the Southeast Regional Conference of the GMWA and we are making our mission clear. It’s an awesome task and we are busy bringing the best in Gospel Music to the forefront. This year, we have planned a variety of spiritually uplifting worship events to minister to the hearts, minds, and spirits of God’s people. However, to make this anniversary a great success, we need your support.
One of the highlights of our anniversary celebration each year is the conference and anniversary program because it reflects the love and support that we receive from people like you throughout the year.
You pledge your support by:
• Purchasing an ad to advertise your business or simply support a chapter member
• Submitting your personal business card
• Become an Atlanta Chapter of GMWA patron
To make sure that all ads are included in the anniversary/conference booklet, the deadline for purchasing and submitting ads and patrons is February 6, 2012. DOWNLOAD LETTER TO THE LEFT FOR MORE INFORMATION.
EXHIBIT/VENDOR BOOTH RENTAL
In celebration of our 36th Anniversary, we are happy to invite you to be a part of our exhibit/vendor area. Share your information, sell your goods during our weekend of events.
Those times are:
Saturday, February 25, 2010 10:00am – 9:00pm
Sunday, February 26, 2010 4:00pm – 9:00pm
Please download form to the left. Complete and submit at your earliest for the first to reserve the best locations in the faciity. You will be contacted by Ted Jeans once your contract and payment has been received.
Click on Image to Enlarge
gmwa2012ANNIVEXHIBITCONTR.pdf
The Atlanta Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. was formed on January 20, 1976 by a group of singers and musicians who sought to adopt the ideals of the national organization of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) and align themselves with other chapters across the country and around the world involved in the promotion and the advancement of gospel music. After petitioning the national organization, a charter was granted to The Atlanta Chapter on May 10, 1976.
The Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc., Atlanta Chapter received its 501(c)3 designation as a tax exempt organization from the Internal Revenue Service in September of 2007 as an Arts Organization . Like the goals of the national parent organization, the primary aspiration of The Atlanta Chapter is to equip singers and musicians performing in their individual, local churches with the academic and technical training needed to enhance the effective delivery of the gospel message through music. The acquisition of knowledge allows gospel singers and musicians to present gospel music to the world with ever-increasing excellence, professionalism, dignity and pride. The Atlanta Chapter continually provides opportunities for novice vocalists and musicians to hone their crafts and advance their ministerial music careers through performance and interaction with professionals working in the gospel music industry
During the 35 years since its inception, choirs and other performing groups associated with The Atlanta Chapter have performed before vast audiences in some of the finest auditoriums in the United States. They have performed independently and accompanying and providing musical support for such national Christian icons as the Rev. Keith Pringle, Sandra Crouch, the Rev. Milton Biggham, Dr. Bobby Jones, Dottie Peoples and Lucretia Campbell.
The Atlanta Chapter’s Youth and Young Adult Choir performed in concert during ceremonies at the Martin Luther King Center as part of the celebration of 1996 Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia. Other accomplishments of note include providing background vocals for the award-winning television movie, The Guyana Tragedy, the Story of Jim Jones. Voices from The Atlanta Chapter also can be heard on recordings by nationally acclaimed gospel artists such as Dorothy Norwood (Better Days Ahead), the Georgia Mass Choir (I Sing Because I’m Happy) and Wanda Nero Butler (Live in Atlanta.)
The Atlanta Chapter also routinely lends its resource of musical talent to support fundraising events and activities for local churches, schools, and other community services organizations.
The Atlanta Chapter is always striving to share experiences while reaching out to the community with welcome arms and inviting hearts as it encourages the perpetual enhancement of the presentation of gospel music.
Our Chapter Representative is Evelyn Ellis White and her three Assistant Chapter Representatives are Earnestine Gray, Ted Jeans, and Ralph Davis.
We are a chapter that is doing something all year.
Won't You Join Us!!!
Mission and Objectives
Mission Statement
The mission of The Atlanta Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. is to perpetuate, promote, and advance performance ideals through all types of music media; to support academics that enhance gospel music performances, to provide platforms and forums that showcase gospel music as an art form; and to facilitate alliances among all of those who perform gospel music and work in the gospel music industry at the local, national, and international levels.
Objectives
1. To enhance and upgrade the creation and presentation of gospel music throughout the world.
2. To provide a platform and forum for the presentation of gospel music as an art style on all performance levels.
3. To open new geographical regions, conventional and non-conventional venues where gospel talent on all levels of development can perform before large audiences.
4. To create a learning environment for all phases of gospel, sacred, classical and other types of music traditions that are known, recognized and respected throughout the world.
5. To offer and make available scholarships for educational advancement in gospel and other music traditions.
6. To unify all components of the gospel music industry in the common goal of achieving a greater level of acceptance for gospel music throughout the world.
7. To preserve the heritage of Gospel music in America, while providing a forum for the development of excellence in the presentation of Gospel music.
History of The Gospel Music Workshop of America
Rev. James Cleveland developed and built the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. where the perpetuation and promotion of gospel music has been and remains a primary purpose of the organization.
in March of 1967, called together friends from across the US in an effort to brainstorm his idea of producing a venue for gospel music presentations. The selection of people he called together was chosen due to individual contributions in gospel music. This association formed the Gospel Music Workshop of America with a national convention motto of "Where Everybody is Somebody."
Rev. Cleveland stated, “There are young folk that have talent but have no where to get instructions as to how to put that talent to work. And so I thought how could we help upgrade the music in the church and bring sometime of education to the youth since there is no formal education in schools where they can get the training...so I had the bright idea to get all the best exponents of gospel from all over the world together, asked them what they thought about the idea of coming together forming a workshop to try to teach the young folk whatever they wanted to know about gospel.”
The Gospel Music Workshop of America is a Christian organization convening annually, where national performers, recording artists, new and inspiring songwriters, educators, liturgical dancers, the young and old, pastors, and other minister to each other and to the needs and directions within the African American religious experience. It has opened it's doors to welcome and receive people of different colors, influences and cultures.
The object of the association was to perpetuate, promote and advance the Christian ideal through the medium of music by joining together gospel choirs, choruses , singers songwriters throughout the US in a voluntary association for education, cooperation, promotion and the communication of ideas and ideals. The Gospel Music Workshop of America was incorporated in Detroit, Michigan.
People are attracted to the Workshop because of its unique and structured program format. It's made up of divisions and auxiliaries, with each having separate and distinct functions.
Ask anyone involved in gospel music where they are heading for the summer and you are bound to hear for their response - the Gospel Music Workshop of America. The convention remains one of the most popular destinations in the year for gospel music lovers. Thousands of individuals, both registered delegates and newcomers, head to the annual meetings to get a taste of gospel’s finest and this rich tradition continues to foster the many generations of gospel music with powerful ministry, excellent training, industry networking and hours of great singing. And since the unfortunate passing of its founder, Rev. James Cleveland, in 1991, the forty-year old organization still marches on as one of America’s treasured music institutions ever birth. To this day, it is the largest artistic organization of its kind in the world with 75,000 members in more than 185 chapters stretching from the United States to Asia. The Gospel Music Workshop of America, also called GMWA for short, has a beautiful history that finds some of gospel’s greatest paying their dues to eventually become legends in the evolving forms of traditional and contemporary gospel. According to their website, about 75 percent of the recordings on Billboard's Magazine gospel charts are written, arranged, produced and or performed by GMWA members.
GMWA Membership
Active GMWA Membership ranges from professional and amateur Gospel vocalists to instrumentalists, composers, arrangers, directors and producers, and the like. According to its official website, approximately 75% of the music on Billboard's Gospel Charts is written, arranged, produced, or performed by GMWA members. The GMWA also has chapters in the United States, United Kingdom, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.
GMWA Conventions
Each year, up to 20,000 delegates assemble in the selected city for a teaching, learning and performance orientated environment. These delegates come with an interest in all styles of Gospel Music and the GMWA's divisions and auxiliaries offer the services that meet their needs. An additional 3,000 to 5,000 local gospel music lovers attend the workshop and musical services during the week.
GMWA Recordings
A mass choir of 2,000 to 3,000 vocalists is formed at each GMWA convention, and year a new recording is produced. GMWA offshoots who also record include GMWA Women of Worship, GMWA Men of Promise, and the GMWA Youth Choir.
About Our Founder
Known by such titles as "King James" and the "Crown Prince", he emerged as a giant of the post war Gospel music scene. With a vocal style similar to jazz great Louis Armstrong, He is credited for the architectural design of contemporary Gospel music with top Gospel choirs and for bridging the gap between traditional Gospel, Gospel Quartets and today’s Gospel music.
Born on December 5, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois he attended Roosevelt University. Rev. Cleveland first sang Gospel under the direction of Thomas Dorsey, father of Gospel music at the Pilgrim Baptist Church.
Inspired by the keyboard talents of Gospel singer Roberta Martin, he later began to study piano. In 1951, he joined the Gospelaires, a trio that cut several sides for the Apollo label. At the beginning of his career, he sang with such groups as the Caravans and the Gospelaires, among others. About 1959, he formed his first group, the Gospel Chimes. With the Caravans, Cleveland arranged and performed two hits, "The Solid Rock" and an up tempo reworking of the song "Old Time Religion"
By the mid-1950’s, his original compositions had found their way into the repertoires of numerous Gospel groups, and he was performing with such artists as the Thorn Gospel Singers, Mahalia Jackson, the Gospel All Stars, and the Meditation Singers. In 1960 he formed the Cleveland Singers, featuring organist and accompanist Billy Preston, who would later become an R&B legend. The smash hit "The Love of God", with the Voices of Tabernacle of Detroit, won Cleveland nationwide fame within the Gospel community. Signing with the Savoy label, Cleveland and keyboardist Billy Preston released a long list of classic albums, including Christ Is The Answer and Peace Be Still with the Angelic Choir of Nutley, New Jersey. Many feel that with the 1962 Peace Be Still album, Cleveland started the "traditional Black choir sound."
During the sixties, Cleveland became a minister, later founding the Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church in Los Angeles. He was the most prolific and one of the most gifted composers of his generation, and that earned him the title "Crown Prince of Gospel." His style was influential among many Gospel figures, particularly Aretha Franklin and Jessy Dixon.
In 1968 James Cleveland had a dream. He gathered a small circle of gifted writers, singers and instrumentalists in Philadelphia in hopes of nurturing young talent and furthering the development of the music he loved and devoted his life to.
Thirty one years later, that dream has flourished into a nationwide reality and has become one of the cornerstones of Gospel music, the Gospel Music Workshop of America. Today GMWA has nearly 30,000 members in 150 chapters across America and abroad. Each year they meet at their annual convention in August and sing, learn and fellowship together.
The GMWA has been the training ground for a number of Gospel’s greatest talent’s and visionaries, including contemporary superstars Kirk Franklin and John P. Kee, and many others. It’s an organization whose sole purpose has always been to give Gospel musicians opportunities and settings where they can both teach and learn from each other, and to know that the fruits of their labor could one day reach literally around the world.
In 1972, he was reunited with former piano understudy Aretha Franklin, who featured Cleveland as a guest on the album Amazing Grace, the biggest selling Gospel album of all time. A recipient of the NAACP Image Award, Cleveland also acquired an honorary degree form Temple Baptist College.
Although the commercial trends of the 1980’s had caused a down turn in Cleveland’s career, he continued to perform the gutsy blues-based sound that brought him recognition from listeners throughout the world.
Rev. Cleveland died February 9, 1991 in Los Angeles, California
Rev. James Cleveland
1932-1991
Singer - Pianist - Arranger
Choir Director - Composer
Membership Registration
Local Registration - It is a requirement of all members of The Atlanta Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. to register for each fiscal year. Our fiscal year coincides with what the national organization observes which goes from September to August of following year. During that fiscal year there are three adjustments in the registration fee. From September to end of February, from March to end of May, and from June until convention in August. The first period from September until end of February is $25.00. On March 1st, regular registration goes to $35 per person. On June 1st, the local registration for regular members(excluding seniors and youth) goes from $35 to $50. There's a different scale for Youth and Seniors. You may download our registration form from the web link below and either bring to next Chapter engagement, meeting, or rehearsal or mail in to the address on the form.
Groups of 12 or more – Because we understand the desire of many groups to register, we have developed a policy for groups of 10 or more. A group may register locally for a fee of $300. . There is no maximum number of people that can be a part of your group. You must complete the Group Registration form and list all members on spread sheet will all information completed. No exceptions. Please send e-mail to registration_atlantagmwa.org to request Group Registration Form.
Artist Development Division - In order to participate in this division, you must be the leader of this group. If you are part of a group and not the leader, you must register as an individual.
National Registration - If you plan on attending the National Convention of The Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. that is being held in Nashville, TN the week of July 7th through the 13th, it is better that you register through a local chapter and have the benefit of a registration according to the scale on the form instead of as an unaffiliated member which is $400. This year, the GMWA is using pre-registration on a more progressive scale. That means all forms and payments must be in the possession of our registration department at least a week before the deadline of the period in which you are registering. That means you must also have already paid or at the same time pay your local registration. If any questions, please call or email.
Early Bird - Now thru March 31
2nd Deadline – April 1 thru June 1
Late Registration – June 2 thru July 13
2011 EARLY CLASS REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED…
GMWA2012ConvReg.pdf
Atlanta Chapter Registration Form.pdf
All forms must be submitted by deadlines
Info
Message
Address
P. O. Box 56223
Atlanta, GA 30343
Telephone
Phone: 678-916-7083
Fax: 678-669-0077
Email
info_atlantagmwa.org
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2011 Salute to Unsung Heroes
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