Today we’d like to introduce you to Trey Clegg. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Today we’d like to introduce you to Trey Clegg. They and their team shared their story with us below:
The Trey Clegg Singers (TCS) is a semi-professional chorus founded in March 2016. Our mission is to use music as a healing force for reconciliation, equality, and justice. Always striving for musical excellence, we perform music that moves hearts and informs minds. We represent the wide ethnic diversity of Atlanta, and we are proud to be an affirming community chorus inviting to all expressions of gender identity and sexual orientation. We are a welcoming artistic community that values all the human spirit offers.
Since our founding in 2016, we have had many in-person and virtual concerts, performing music of different styles, cultures, and languages. In January of 2022, The Trey Clegg Singers performed for the Interfaith Service in the Inaugural Festivities for Atlanta Mayor, The Honorable Andre Dickens, and again performed in March of 2022 for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ first State of the City Breakfast at the Georgia World Congress Center. During Black History Month, February of 2022, along with members of a predominately African-American professional orchestra brought together by Trey Clegg for the event, TCS premiered a new symphonic work, “Without Regard to Sex, Race or Color,” composed by Doug Hooker, an Atlanta philanthropist and TCS member. In March of 2022, The Trey Clegg Singers performed for the 90th Birthday Celebration for Ambassador Andrew Young; and in June of 2022, The Trey Clegg Singers made their Carnegie Hall Debut in New York City.
In 2016, Mr. Clegg followed his dream to begin an auditioned multicultural chorus open to all gifted and versatile choral musicians who share the desire to learn and perform a wide array of musical genres. Thus, the first Multicultural Chorus in the Southeast was born! The Trey Clegg Singers have already appeared professionally in prestigious Performing Arts Festivals such as the Spoleto Festival and the Highlands Chamber Music Festival.
TCS was founded by Artistic Director Trey Clegg, an accomplished Organist and Choral Conductor who has toured abroad extensively. Trey’s professional life and musical interests have focused primarily on musical expressions within the broad African American tradition. Because Atlanta is a major international city, Trey’s dream was to lead a multicultural chorus performing music of all styles with musical excellence, inspiring healing and justice. That dream became a reality in 2016. TCS embodies this feeling of family, and it is what audiences see, hear and feel at our concerts.
In addition to inspiring exemplary musicianship, The Trey Clegg Singers have adopted a motto that defines who we are to each other: We are more than Music, We are more than a Chorus, We are a Family!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road along the way, as we have had challenges with keeping our finances in the black, like many nonprofit organizations. Mercifully a major donor always manages to come through before we hit bankruptcy, but it would be nice to realize our dream of healing through music without that constant fear of financial woes.
Additionally, the effects of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic caused TCS to move to a virtual platform for all of our 2020-2021 seasons. Beginning in March 2020 and continuing until August 2021, TCS conducted all rehearsals and performed all concerts virtually. The concerts were available free of charge to our audience on YouTube. They were also distributed to Atlanta area hospitals to offer hope and healing to the community at the forefront of the pandemic.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The Trey Clegg Singers has recently been awarded a specific, project-based grant of $15,000 exclusively for the research and performance of Native American music next year for our Spring Concert at the end of our upcoming 2023-24 concert season. This music is a passion for Trey Clegg, who has had a deep desire to learn about Indigenous Choral Music.
Trey has also recently been invited by Distinguished Concerts International New York to serve as a Guest Conductor in Carnegie Hall in April, 2024. He will be responsible for gathering and auditioning singers from Atlanta to take to New York City in this performance of Native American music in Carnegie Hall under his baton.
The TCS is also known across the Southeast region of the United States for its annual Holiday Concert in December, which arguably draws one of the most diverse audiences for any concert in Atlanta.
Additionally, Trey Clegg is in his 22nd consecutive season in the Bass/Baritone section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus. In March of 2023, he performed the Solo role of the High Priest in Johann Sebastian Bach’s epic work, The St. Matthew Passion with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
As a composer, Trey’s music is published by Morning Star Music in St . Louis and Fred Bock Music in Los Angeles. Trey’s organ performances have been heard on Caribbean National Radio, American National Public Radio, and Atlanta FM 90.1.
For those who are just starting out in this field, I would advise them to study and practice constantly so that they can get as much repertoire under their belts early on, as the demands of a seasoned career severely limit personal practice time. Thankfully, I had mentors early on in my career who gave me this advice which has proved to be very helpful to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thetreycleggsingers.org
- Instagram: @treycleggsingers
- Facebook: @thetreycleggsingers
- Youtube: @thetreycleggsingersinc.8778
