The Lamont Chorale will be performing with The Spirituals Project Choir in honor of Black History Month on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at the Newman Center for Performing Arts. It is the first collaborative performance between the two musical groups.

The Spirituals Project choir, part of The Spirituals Project, is a non-profit agency based out of DU’s higher education department which aims to use African American spiritual music as a form of self-expression and an art form.

Director of choral studies Catherine Sailer, who conducts the Lamont Chorale, said there was a strong mission within the Lamont Chorale to connect with the community for this performance.

“It is a great example of cross-departmental collaboration at DU,” Sailer said.

She said the Lamont Chorale has been preparing for the performance for a long time.

“We [the Lamont Chorale] have been studying the spiritual as an art form over the past quarter,” Sailer said. “We have been looking at how this music has transformed from songs that people used as plays, with some secret hidden messages, to the underground railroads.”

Sailer said the performance will be comprised of concert music arranged as spirituals (created by enslaved Africans in America in the 18th and 19th centuries) from this long musical history.

“We want to highlight the perseverance and optimism for the hope for a better life and future, which this type of music conveys,” said Sailer.

According to Sailer, both the Lamont Chorale and The Spirituals Project Choir will be presenting some pieces of their own before collaborating as a larger group.

“The performance is free and can be enjoyed on so many levels,” said Sailer. “There is wonderful rhythmic vitality, which is elevating and uplifting.”

Sailer said the performance will be approachable, and that The Spirituals Project Choir conductors Bennie L. Williams and LaDamion Mass  will encourage the audience to explore the music like a text.

The Lamont Chorale, as well as the DU women’s and men’s choirs, will be performing on March 6.

Sailer said the women’s and men’s choirs are open to anyone in the DU community, and that they are always looking for more singers. Contact Sailer at csailer@du.edu for more information.