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Rosephanye Powell

Perfect for High School & University Performances

Exceptional For Worship Concerts

Representing The Highest Standard Of Excellence In Composition and Arrangments

“Rosephanye’s creative and passionate love for the choral art leaves a thumbprint of hope and healing to both singer and listener. She has mastered the ability to blend various musical genres with authenticity and innovation. I’m honored to call her colleague and blessed to call her my friend!”

Stacey V. Gibbs – Composer-Arranger

Rosephanye Powell

Choral Spiritual Arrangements

The complete  Rosephanye Powell Choral Spiritual Arrangement Collection should be in every Choral Conductor & Choral Directors Music Library.

Rosephanye Powell Collection Features

Suitable For High School Concerts

Suitable For School Performances

The Highest Standard of Choral Music Excellence

Suitable For College & University Choirs 

Suitable Church Performances

Collection includes Solos, Anthems & Choir Music

Heart Wrenching Harmonies

Innovative & Popular Writer

Spirituals Published by Gentry Publications

Social Justice

“The influence of the African American spiritual is that it speaks not only to the struggles and
hopes of the African American people, but to people of all races, nationalities and cultures.”

Rosephanye Powell

Culture

“The African American spiritual is especially dear to my heart, having grown up hearing these
powerful songs hummed and sung by my grandmother and mother. They are as naturally a part of my life as the blood that flows through my veins.”

Rosephanye Powell

 

Sacred & Academic

“Considered by many ethnomusicologists as the first true American folksong, the preservation of
the African American spiritual is of utmost importance”

Rosephanye Powell

 

Our Featured Reviews

Rosephanye Powell has undoubtedly earned the place as one of our great female choral composers. Her writing style is accessible for singers of all ages, making her a popular composer featured on Honor and All-State Choir Programs. Whether writing a short octavo-length piece or an extended work, her knowledge of the voice, voice leading, and her gift for melody will ensure the consumer a high-quality composition.

Dr. Andre Thomas, National Vice President ACDA, Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting Yale University

Rosephanye Powell is a dynamo and an exuberant force. Her compositions display a diversity of styles and a creativity that is uniquely her own. Anthems, motets, vocal solos, spirituals, she does it all, and then without trying has the most charisma in the room.

Allan Robert Petker

The final work on the program, Rosephanyne Powell’s A Christmas Medley, was commissioned
by Chanticleer in 2017. Powell created a joyous setting of four songs that started toes tapping,
and ‘Go, Tell It on the Mountain’ almost got the audience clapping.

Rick Perdian, Seen and
Heard International Concert Review, 2019

…culminating in Rosephanye Powell’s soaring Christmas Medley of African-American
spirituals and gospel music.

Brian Bromberger, Arts & Culture, Bay Area Reporter, 2019

Powell’s thrilling spiritual sequence comprising “Rise Up Shepherd An’ Follow,” “Mary Had a Baby,” and
“Come An’ See,” which came at the end and brought the house down.  Powell is not only a composer
and a choral educator, but a singer as well, and it shows in the magnificent solos she’s provided, one in
each movement. Her ensemble-writing is gorgeous, too, and it’s always precisely expressive of the text;
there’s not even a whiff of lavishness or calculation about it. She has call-and-response in her bones, and
the tiny, quiet little dialogue in “Mary Had a Baby” is as perfect as such things can very well be.

Christopher Johnson, reviewer, ZealNew York.com

 [Dr. Powell’s] music is so fully imbued with the idiomatic style of the spiritual, so reminiscent in gesture of works like Great Camp Meeting, and so evocative of the work of great composers, that it has found a place as a remarkable contemporary expression of the genre.

Chicago A cappella

[Powell’spiritual medley] is a welcome addition to the choral repertoire, with its harmonic craftsmanship
and rousing original tune, “Come An’ See.”

SUSAN PENA, the READING EAGLE CORRESPONDENT

Rosephanye Powell has made a name for herself in the choral worlds of composition, singing,
music education, and research study in the preservation and performance of African-American spirituals and gospel music. An avid choral clinician and an insightful adjudicator, she travels the world to share her expertise and her luscious soprano voice.

Chanticleer

One of the bright lights in American choral composition, Rosephanye Powell’s distinctive works bring head and heart together in a way that demonstrates careful craft, sincerity of creative impulse, deep human and spiritual sensitivity, accessible expression, and an impressive range of sensibilities. My choirs and I are always excited to prepare and perform her music!

James Kinchen
Director of Choral Activities
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Christopher Johnson, reviewer, ZealNew York.com

The celebration and sparkle of [Powell’s] spiritual stems from the answer to the repeated question, “Who is the baby?” Powell’s piece features vibrant vocal lines, a wide range of dynamics, the call-and-response patterns of old-fashioned revival meetings, heavy accents and penetrating syncopations.

A Chanticleer Christmas, featuring Chanticleer, multiple Grammy Award-winning professional male ensemble

Dr. Rosephanye Powell is one of the most prolific and relevant composers of our time. Her well-crafted compositions and arrangements are vital resources for the field of choral music.

Dr. Rollo A. Dilworth, Composer & Conductor
Vice Dean and Professor of Choral Music Education
Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts, Temple University

The music of Rosephanye Powell honors the colorful, harmonic language of Black American culture with the theoretical prowess of the Western tradition.  The result is an accessible body of literature that speaks equally  to the soul and mind. 

Dr. Jeffery Ames. Conductor & Composer
Director of Choral Activities
School of Music at Belmont University

The music of Dr. Rosephanye Dunn Powell is masterfully composed. Leading the listener on an aesthetic journey of epic proportion and directing the performers to engaged artistic delivery, Powell’s music is expertly crafted, balanced, accessible, and enriching. 

Dr. Ollie Watts Davis,
Suzanne and William Allen Distinguished Professor of Music
Black Chorus, Artistic Director and Conductor
University of Illinois

Rosephanye’s creative and passionate love for the choral art leaves a thumb print of hope to both the singer and the listener.  She has mastered the ability to blend various musical genres with authenticity and innovation.  I’m honored to call her colleague and blessed to call her my “friend.”

Stacy Gibbs, Composer & Arranger

The spiritual arrangements Rosephanye Powell made for Chanticleer were fun to prepare, grateful to sing and much enjoyed by our audiences. Her settings have soul and strength. And honesty. They speak directly to a singer’s heart, with sophistication and cleverness but without gimmicks. We loved them.

William Fred ScottMusic Director 2015–2020

About the Rosephanye Powell Collection

Rosephanye Powell

Dr. Rosephanye Powell was born in 1962 in Lanett, Alabama. She learned to play the piano at a very young age and attended West Point High School where she learned how to play the saxophone. While in high school she joined many clubs and extracurriculars such as marching band and her school choir. She received her Bachelor of Music Education at Alabama State University then went on to receive her Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster College in Princeton, New Jersey. She then worked for the music department at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. However, Dr. Powell’s personal education didn’t stop in Georgia. She later went on to receive her PhD in Music Education at Florida State University along with her husband. They both worked together at the Philander Smith College in Arkansas where she later became the Chair of the Music Department and her husband became the Director of Choral Activity. She also became the Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Auburn University in 2001. Dr. Powell has numerous works and has been called America’s premiere women composer for choral music. Some of her works include: “As the Deer Pants,” “Ascribe to the Lord,” “I Wanna Be Ready,” and many more. She has also been awarded many honors such as the  “Living Legend Award” presented by California State University African Diaspora Sacred Music Festival in Los Angeles.