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"Mother of Music" American Spiritual Ensemble Comes to Clemens Fine Arts Center

Group Discount Available

Paducah, KY (01/08/2018) — "The American Negro spiritual is the mother of music. It gave birth to jazz, blues, gospel and pop..." according to Dr. Everett McCorvey of the University of Kentucky, founder of the American Spiritual Ensemble (ASE). The energetic, uniquely American folk music of the ASE will delight music lovers of all kinds at the first show of 2018 at West Kentucky Community and Technical College's Clemens Fine Arts Center on Sunday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m.

Founded in 1995, ASE is composed of some of the finest classically trained vocalists in the United States. The roster includes accomplished soloists who have sung in theaters and opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and abroad in Italy, Germany, Britain, Scotland, Spain and Japan.

The mission of the ASE is to aid in the preservation of the American Negro spiritual. Spirituals are the folk songs of the American Negro Slave. Losing their traditional, ancestral music, as well as their freedom, slaves added African chants, rhythms and harmonies to the Christian songs they learned to create spirituals. The classically trained voices of ASE beautifully capture the haunting genius of these folk melodies. Some of the songs date back to the 1500s.

From his website, McCorvery wrote, "We all feel this music deeply and viscerally, from our toes to our hearts, from memory to marrow." The musicians in the ensemble travel around the globe giving concerts, lectures and master class instruction for educational and religious institutions and premier concert halls. They have performed over 500 concerts, including tours of Spain, China, Ireland, Poland, Ecuador and Brazil.

Tickets for the ASE are $30 for adults and $15 for students and children. Tickets are available by calling the Clemens Center Box Office at (270) 534-3212 or at artsinfocus.org. Groups of 15 or more will receive a 15% discount.

For more show details, visit americanspiritualensemble.com/.

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West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) has been recognized as an Aspen Prize Top 10 Community College each of the four times the Prize has been awarded by the Aspen Institute and has twice been named a Finalist with Distinction for providing students with strong job training and continuing higher education opportunity, for achieving high completion and transfer rates, and for providing strong employment results for its graduates. For more information visit, westkentucky.kctcs.edu.

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American Spiritual Ensemble Comes to Clemens Fine Arts Center January 21.

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