"Young And Gifted Choir" Celebrates Diverse History
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - 90-year-old Almeda Pryor, the founder and first director of "the Young and Black Choir" at California University of Pennsylvania, is happy to see it's still going strong.
"We started out with 15 members and it grew to about 25," said Pryor. "And they wanted everybody to know that they sang gospel. Being black, they were proud of it, so that was the name that was chosen.
However, the name soon changed to "the Young and Gifted Choir."
"The title change came about because they were some caucasian children that joined in, and so they dropped the 'black'," said Pryor.
While the group became a safe haven for its members, they still found themselves facing adversity, having to prove they were equal.
"We were offered robes that they told me were 40 years old," said Pryor. "Those robes were dry rotted, they were full of dust and I just refused to use them. I looked it like this: this is Cal U, you're Cal U Choir has robes, why can't the young, gifted and black have robes. They're representing Cal U too, and they're due the same treatment as the other choir. That was my argument."
Pryor says the group wasn't just a choir.
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"We were like a family, and I was mamma. I spent a lot of time up here in the evenings after work and if they had problems they would come to me," she said.
The choir's current director, Dr. Randy Tillmutt, says the group still works to make changes for the better on campus.
"It just gives them that opportunity to interact with students that they probably wouldn't be able to interact with outside of the group," Tillmutt said.
He insists teaching music is about more than music.
"I like to see the lightbulb effect, where students learn something that they didn't know before and it changes there behavior," he said.
It's a transformation through music that Pryor also saw and hopes to see again.
"There's so much going on today, and I'm hoping that some young person might see and hear this choir and decide to do a complete turn around," she said.
Tilmutt is proud to carry on Pryor's tradition and hopes the choir will continue for years to come.
"So that students coming in to Cal will continue to see that togetherness, that happiness that they enjoy. That they can come and still feel at home, even though they're away from home because of the atmosphere that we create in the choir," he said.
A choir that was started for some, that has become home to many.
"I don't go around tooting my own horn, but I'm really proud of the fact that they continue on with the choir. I truly am," said Pryor.