August 2, 2007

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	Jerome Kyles
	Photo provided by the artist
	Major "Choirboy" Johnson
	Photo provided by the artist

It’s certain that each year the estimated 17,000 attendees of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) get their praise on with voices lifted on high. A select group of teens will have even more reason to rejoice. Berklee, known internationally for providing premier contemporary music education, and the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the largest music association of its kind, have partnered to provide gospel music scholarships to candidates from GMWA’s Youth Division.

Berklee will present five scholarships covering tuition for its 2008 Five-Week Summer Performance Program and an additional five scholarships for a special weekend gospel workshop at the college’s Boston campus next summer. The awards total more than $20,000 and will be presented during GMWA’s 40th annual convention at Walt Disney World August 11–17. Some 15,000 delegates are expected to attend.

"We have known of the wonderful educational opportunities provided by Berklee College of Music for several years," said GMWA academic dean Charles Reese. "Berklee is to contemporary music what Juilliard has always been to classical and traditional music instruction. We are honored to be part of a joint effort that will mean so much to our young people."

This extraordinary pairing will begin when GMWA faculty evaluate approximately 100 performance students and recommend finalists to the Berklee search committee. That list will be finalized on Wednesday, August 15, and the contenders will be scheduled for interviews with the Berklee committee, including Jerome Kyles, Berklee faculty member and choir director for TLC show Trial By Choir, on Thursday, August 16. Those competitors will be narrowed to 10 talented winners invited to attend a VIP reception in their honor immediately following the annual Youth Convocation/Graduation event.

Berklee alumnus ambassador Major "Choirboy" Johnson—who has shared the stage with artists such as Israel and New Breed, John P. Kee, Tonex, and Byron Cage—opens the GMWA Youth Concert on Wednesday, August 15. Choirboy, who grew up as a GMWA Houston, Texas, Youth Division chapter member, will perform his new song "I Found a Friend," which has proved popular online and at concerts and events around the country (scheduled for national release on August 28).

Gospel Music of America, with some 75,000 members in 200 chapters in the U.S., United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, and Asia, was founded in 1968 by the late Rev. James Cleveland. Approximately 75 percent of the recordings included on Billboard magazine’s gospel charts are written, arranged, produced, and/or performed by GMWA members.

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Mitzi A. Dorbu
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mdorbu@berklee.edu