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Decky Alexander: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to our weekly conversation on equity and opportunity in Washtenaw County and our community. I'm your host, Decky Alexander, and I'm honored still and always to welcome you to this week's Washtenaw United. "I want to be ready. I want to be ready, I want be ready walking in Jerusalem just like John. If you get there before I do, tell all my friends that I'm coming too." These words, "I want to be ready," spring from one of the 6,000 African-American spirituals that speak not just about waiting for what's next but actively preparing the ground we stand on. In this Washtenaw County community and in most communities, keeping cultural legacies alive and present requires that same kind of preparation. It's about ensuring that the sounds, the stories, and the institutional excellence of our past are walking right beside us today. Today, we're talking with Dr. LaVonte' Heard, Musical Director of the Willis C. Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale, an institution carrying forward over five decades of preserving and performing traditional African American spirituals and classical works, on why maintaining our cultural memory isn't just about filling a gap. It's about building the vital architecture so our past is etched into our everyday. So welcome to Washtenaw United, Dr. Heard! We are so ready for you to be here! Welcome!
Dr. LaVonte' Heard: Listen, I am grateful to be here! Good morning!
Decky Alexander: Good morning, good morning! So, Dr. Heard, you are an internationally acclaimed artist and educator. So let's begin with your song and your story. What is your journey to the Our Own Thing Chorale?
Dr. LaVonte' Heard: You know, this is my second full season with the Our Own Thing Chorale. And it is such a pleasure to be a part of a rich legacy. I am from Lansing, Michigan. And when they put out a national call for a conductor, I saw this music that I really have devoted my entire musical life to the preservation of the African American spiritual and the songs that have brought our people over. And I saw it as an opportunity to be able to expand my own footprint in the community. It has been such a pleasure to be a part of this organization and to support its instructional program, which people who know me and those that don't, maybe your listeners don't know, that I have devoted my life to children. Kids are my life. And so not only do I get to conduct this great choir, but I get to work with many people who serve the community by offering free lessons to children. This organization is continuing to make a huge impact – dare I say the word, impact – on the community in that way. I mean, who gives free music lessons anymore? Nobody!
Decky Alexander: So, Dr. Heard, when we think about not just what the organization does in its everyday, but also the lineage of Willis C. Patterson, he founded this over 50 years ago. How do you view the relationship between that beginning history and our present moment to you?
Dr. LaVonte' Heard: The work and the life of Dean Patterson, as I called him, speaks so much to this current moment where one uses their influence, they use their positionality in order to serve equity for the most vulnerable members of our community. It's something that seems almost backward in our modern society, where it is kind of the gospel of me. How can I make me better? How can I be seen more? How can I be more important? How could I be more powerful? How can I make more money? But for someone like Dean Patterson who, even when he founded this great group, was already a huge star in his own right and had broken down so many barriers being the first African American professor of music in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at the University of Michigan and all of the great things that he did in his life, still saw a need for young people in the community to be able to have equitable access to art in a way that was high-quality and life-changing. This is where we come today. And here in 2026, what we are trying to do is use our positionality, our resources, so that we can expand those efforts for even more young people throughout the county.
Decky Alexander: You are listening to Washtenaw United on 89.1 WEMU. I'm Decky Alexander. And today, we are having a conversation with Dr. LaVonte' Heard, musical director of the Willis C. Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale, singing past into the present. So, Dr. Heard, how does this choir to you, this collective sound, illuminate – you kind of alluded to this in an earlier response – who we are as a county, a community, a world right now. How does the choir's sound kind of illuminate who we are?
Dr. LaVonte' Heard: Yeah, the cry around the world, I would say, right now is, "How do we bring everybody to the table?" And the way that African Americans have done this, really, for centuries, is through song. Come. Sing with us. Sing about the world. Sing about love. Sing about a better life. Sing about heaven. Sing about family. And what the Willis Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale does is it uses the African American spiritual, as well as other forms of African American music, to invite everybody in the community in, no matter what color you are. Your creed, sexual preference, doesn't matter. They allow people to come and sing with this choir to talk about loving each other at the society more. And really, pointing back to Dr. Patterson's philosophy that this music, the music of the African American spiritual and the like, is for everyone. There's a song that we sing. It's "Plenty Good Room in My Father's Kingdom." Plenty room for you. There's plenty of room for me. There is room enough for all. And that's what this is about today: encouraging people to come sit with us, come break bread together, and to make a better community for all.
Decky Alexander: That is beautiful! Many people who have heard you or heard the choir, I think, want to sit with you. So, how do we get to sit with you and be part of the table and listen to the words that can transform our community in this moment in time?
Dr. LaVonte' Heard: There are two ways. First of all, you can meet us at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ann Arbor every Tuesday. If you want to come and sing, and, honestly, if you just want to see what we're about, we meet at 7:00 until 9:00. That's the first way. The second way is, in a huge way, is at the Nov. 1 gala, where we are honoring the life and legacy of, I will say, the legendary Dr. Willis C. Patterson, who we lost tragically last year, who in his mid-90s, served until he couldn't serve anymore. And we are honoring him as his choir on November 1st and welcoming alumni of the Willis Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale, people who are having major careers. People like Pinner Ray Wade, who's made a huge career in Europe, and the inimitable Dr. Louise Poppin and more. I'll say "and more." You have to come and see us to see all the major stars that will be there with us with the chorale that evening to, well, excuse me, that afternoon, to honor Dean Patterson. That will be at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor. But you want to be there at 4:00 on Nov. 1. Talk about singing! There's going to be some singing going on up in there, as my mama would say!
Decky Alexander: Well, one of the things my drama teacher said to me is that there are no stars. The stars are only in the sky. They're not on the ground. But I think a lot of us who had the privilege of knowing Dean Patterson feel that he is definitely a star in the sky and on the ground. But you also are a star. And with your extensive background, Dr. Heard, in classical performance and gospel and educational leadership, how does your own lived experience shape the way you guide this chorale today?
Dr. LaVonte' Heard: Oh, wow! I have to give a shoutout to three very important components. And I really appreciate the opportunity to speak about that. The first one is my mama. She's the late Cynthia Prines Heard, who put me up to sing in church. She was the director of music in our church, Christ Temple Church in Lansing, Mich., from a young child. I remember her and making tapes for choir members and things and teaching us to really love the Lord and to love singing and music and love singing in a community setting. That's the first one. The other is Andrea Singleton, who is from the very famous gospel group from Lansing called The Singletons. She really was the one who gave me my start as a singer, very young. But I have a huge homage to Verna B. Holly, who was the director of the historic Earl Nelson Singers Company of Lansing. My grandparents used to take me to the Earl Nelson Singers concerts. And to know the Earl Nelson singers, they were very similar to the Willis Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale in that their mission was to preserve the concert Negro spiritual, and they sang at a high level. They were a community group, but if you listen to some of those old recordings when I was coming up, boy! They found it like a professional choir. You couldn't figure out who or what choir that was. And she was my first piano teacher, and she always made me seeing him play at the same time to learn the notes and to learn to read music. And she heard my voice, and she says, "Wow! You really have a lovely voice!" I was in the eighth grade. She said, "You should come and join the Nelson Singers." And so, from the time I was in the eighth grade until I went to college at Central State University in Wilburforce, Ohio, I sang in the Earl Nelson Singers Choir with Verna Holly. And that's where I learned to love this music. I studied with Richard Fracker in high school at Michigan State University on a scholarship that I was given because of the Earl Nelson Singers. And then, when I went into Central State, that's when I really blew up. And I had an opportunity to compete in Europe. And at the competition that I ended up winning as a freshman, and I was going up against all the students from these big conservatories around the world. And in the audience was the late, great Grace Bumbry, mezzo soprano. And she came to me and she asked me would I be her apprentice for the rest of the summer. And from there, I kind of blew up and went through school and continued on my journey. And I say all of that to say I'd won that competition because I sang a spiritual. It was "My Soul's Been Anchored" by Florence Price, a Black woman composer. And it was so off the beat because you really should start with an opera aria or something, but that's not what i felt comfortable doing. I'm into spirituals. I'm into gospel. And I said, "Well, I can sing the other things, but I want to sing something that'll make me not nervous first for the judges." And that was probably the best decision I could have made, and maybe naive as a 19-year-old kid doing that. But I did, and I sang it with my whole heart. And it made the difference. And so, being true to myself, coming to the Willis Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale, I bring with me that legacy from Lansing, from the Nelson Singers, who taught me, from a very young age, that this music, yes, it's for everybody, but it is so important to the musical landscape of the world and must be preserved at all costs.
Decky Alexander: Well, you also bring a legacy of teaching. It really is a testament that in telling your own story, you tell the story of those who taught you, which makes a lot of sense, given that your trajectory is really teaching. Dr. Heard, I teach improvisation, and there are characteristics that have become so part of my everyday language and being. So, is there a spiritual or a line that has become part of your everyday language and being?
Dr. LaVonte' Heard: Oh, gosh! Yes, it would have to be the very first spiritual I was ever given as a solo, and that was a spiritual called "God is a God" set by Wendell Whalum, the great Wendel Whalum, who was a close friend of Dean Patterson and knew the chorale very well. There's a line that says, "He made the sun to shine by day, the moon to rule the night. He gave me love and calm my fears and drove away my fright. He fixed my feet for running and set my heart of flame, fixed my hope in the holy lamb and gave me my good name. God is a God. He don't never change. God is a God, and he always will be God." And the reason why that speaks to me is if I am anything, It's because I believe that someone greater than me, and I will call him God, has put people in my way, so that I can be who I am today. And that includes Dean Patterson, who I did not know growing up, who I didn't know until I was an adult, but came to find out that my teacher, Richard Fracker, was one of his students. So, still, because of him, he touched me and made me who I'm today. And that means a lot to me!
Decky Alexander: That was Dr. LaVonte' Heard, musical director of the Willis C. Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale, sharing his spirit onto our show and studio. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and you can hear it right here every Monday, I'm Decky Alexander, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
ABOUT DR. LAVONTE' HEARD:
Dr. LaVonté L. Heard is a sought-after clinician who has led masterclasses worldwide, reaching youth of all backgrounds. He is a dedicated educator, serving as a music teacher in the Lansing School District and then as the arts program development specialist. Dr. Heard founded Transcendence Vocal Arts Institute, which grew into Transcendence Performing Arts Centers, Inc., a growing network of schools and studios in Lansing, MI, and nationally. Dr. Heard's students have been heard in concert halls worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, the American Church in Paris, and the Municipal House in Prague, Czech Republic, Detroit Opera, the Grammy Awards, and more. Heard conducts the Verna D. Holley Project in Lansing, Mich., and the Willis C. Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Heard has been lauded worldwide for his versatility in his classical and "fiery" gospel performances. "A thundering tenor" is how he was described by a well-wisher after his performance with the Jeremy Winston Chorale in Hamburg, Germany. His career has taken him worldwide, singing with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, Bach Society of Dayton, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, EAFIT Orchestra (Colombia, South America), Flint Symphony, and Sphinx Virtuosi. He has appeared in China, Europe, South America, and the United States. Carnegie Hall (New York), Severance Hall (Cleveland, Ohio), Lincoln Center (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Dome of Salzburg (Salzburg, Austria), Schloss Mirabell (Salzburg, Austria), and Municipal House (Prague, Czech Republic) are among the many concert halls and venues where Heard has appeared.
Dr. Heard is a proud member of Exigence Vocal Ensemble, founded by Eugene Rogers and the Jeremy Winston Chorale International. He is also affiliated with the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the National Association of Negro Musicians, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing, and the Earl Nelson Singers Company of Lansing, MI. He graduated from The Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, with a degree in vocal performance. He received a Master of Education degree in educational leadership from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., and a master’s degree in choral music education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He earned a Doctor of Education in educational leadership (policy) from Central Michigan University.
Dr. Heard serves on the voice faculty at Lansing Community College, the Lansing School District Board of Education, and has recently assumed a leadership role in the Michigan Department of Education Office of Educator Excellence.
RESOURCES:
Willis C. Patterson Our Own Thing Chorale
Our Own Thing Chorale on Facebook
Our Own Thing Chorale on YouTube
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