St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s IN UNISON Chorus is aiming to expand its reach. It has struck a deal with Fenton-based MorningStar Music Publishers to publish and distribute sheet music for works that the chorus has commissioned or performed.
IN UNISON focuses on music from the Black church, including gospel songs arranged for chorus with orchestra and devotional works by living composers.
Publishing that music makes it easier for other ensembles around the world to discover new works. It also helps composers earn royalties from performances of their work.
“Accessibility is everything. For someone to actually publish a piece, that means there’s longevity. And then people from all disciplines can access it,” said composer Emorja G. Roberson, a professor of music and African American studies at Emory University.
Roberson’s “Lord, I Am Grateful,” which IN UNISON Chorus performed with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra last year, is one of the first two pieces MorningStar Music Publishers will publish under the new contract. The other is “It’s Working,” a piece the chorus commissioned from Missouri-based composer Isaac Cates and premiered in 2019. Other publications will follow.
IN UNISON Chorus Director Kevin McBeth is selecting the pieces to be published. The effort is one way to help solve a problem he discovered when he took over the chorus in 2011.
“It became pretty obvious that there were gaps in the music available for choruses and orchestras who perform music like we’re performing. Even though we had wonderful literature that was available to us, there just wasn’t enough of it,” McBeth said. “We’re filling in some of those gaps and making all of this new music now available to ensembles to perform.”
Choral arrangements of gospel songs are easy enough to find, McBeth said, but fewer published works include arrangements for orchestra.
“There’s a need for this kind of repertoire,” McBeth said.
Robert Ray, the performer, educator and composer of the influential “Gospel Mass,” founded the IN UNISON Chorus in 1994 and led it for its first 16 years. The chorus performs several times a year and includes members from dozens of churches in and around St. Louis.
