For Damon DeBose, being proven wrong during his teen years at Detroit’s Renaissance High School was a good thing.
In fact, because DeBose was once proven wrong about his creative potential by a wise woman, he has since made it a point to always do right by Detroit’s music community.
And that includes being the director and CEO of the nonprofit United Voices of Detroit, which will present a free Juneteenth Freedom Day concert on June 13 at Plymouth United Church of Christ, 600 E. Warren Ave, Detroit.
“We are committed to promoting unity in the community through music,” DeBose said about United Voices of Detroit, which performs a broad musical repertoire including anthems, spirituals, jazz standards, show tunes, gospels and more. “By celebrating Juneteenth, we want to uplift the African American community. But we also want to promote unity, diversity, multiculturalism and the need for tolerance across our entire community and region.
“And this is needed now more than ever with the divisive social climate that we are experiencing today. So, through the music that will be performed at this concert, we’re hoping that we can all experience beauty together.”
Composed of singers and musicians representing many walks of life from across metro Detroit, United Voices of Detroit was founded in 2009 by the renowned music educator Nina Scott — the same Nina Scott who, as Director of Choral Activities at Renaissance High School, told DeBose during his sophomore year that he had the talent to earn a music scholarship if he was willing to put in the work to develop his talent.
But before any of that could happen, DeBose had to believe that such an opportunity existed.
“I joined the choir because there were some girls that I wanted to hang out with — I never saw myself as a singer or a musician,” DeBose, a 1993 Renaissance graduate, said. “Then Ms. Scott told me that I could get a scholarship in music, and I didn’t believe that was possible. I didn’t know anyone who had received a music scholarship. But she started me on this path and two years later I received a scholarship to Kentucky State University, where I studied music education. And I take a lot of pride today in being one of Nina Scott’s former students.”
DeBose, who followed in the footsteps of Scott by becoming the director of United Voices of Detroit in 2022, also says he takes pride in the fact that his group’s concert at Plymouth United Church of Christ will kick off a host of activities that will be presented by Plymouth’s Social Justice Committee, spearheaded by attorney Jerome Watson, that call attention to the freedom-related principles associated with Juneteenth, which will be observed as a federal holiday on June 19.
In addition to the partnership with Plymouth, DeBose’s group and the Juneteenth concert also is linked to another prominent Detroit church.
For example, the location for United Voices of Detroit’s rehearsal on the evening of June 1 was Westminster Church of Detroit, an anchor of the Winship community at West Outer Drive and Hubbell (across the street on the Outer Drive side from Renaissance High School). And not only was the rehearsal held within Westminster’s choir room, but in attendance was Victor Boyd, the director of Westminster’s Harmony Chorale, who also has been a member of United Voices of Detroit since January.
“Vic has been a monumental addition to the group and an integral part of what we’re trying to accomplish in the community,” said DeBose, whose singers were on the program with Boyd’s Harmony Chorale during a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday program earlier this year at Westminster, which led to Boyd joining United Voices of Detroit.
The contributions of the 35-year-old Boyd to his new group were on display during the June 1 rehearsal, as he divided his time between singing with the bass section and working with singers as they performed his arrangement of “My Lord What a Morning,” which will be part of the Juneteenth Freedom Day Concert.
Afterward, Boyd explained that carrying out multiple roles is a badge of honor for artists in his circle.
“Within Detroit’s music community, the choral society is a small world,” said Boyd, a product of the Detroit School of Arts and Marygrove College, who also is preparing his own Harmony Chorale for a Juneteenth concert that Westminster Church of Detroit will host June 19 at 6 p.m.
“Many of us have taught in the public schools, or attended the same college or even high school, so we’re very close and we call on each other all the time. I have invited members of UVD to sing with my choir to fill important roles, so we share a lot.”
Boyd’s statement about the closeness of Detroit’s music community was echoed by 64-year-old Julie Devine, an early arrival to the June 1 rehearsal, where she sat in the sopranos section.
“The Detroit music community is very tight,” said Devine, who still fondly recalls receiving a call from a friend while driving on the freeway in 2009 and learning that a new choral group for adults — United Voices of Detroit — was about to be formed.
“I walked in the door at Bushnell (Congregational) Church, and someone invited me to have a seat, and I have been a part of this group ever since. I love singing in harmony with other people; there’s nothing better for the soul,” she said. “And UVD members have been with me through weddings, births and deaths — this is family for me.”
Like Devine, Luke Windon was there when United Voices of Detroit began. But the 62-year-old Windon says his long musical journey would have never occurred if not for another legendary Detroit choral group — and equally legendary members of Detroit’s music community — that helped him to be a part of it.
“I was 29 years old and had just started singing at my church (Hope Presbyterian Church), when I saw the Brazeal Dennard Chorale on stage with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra during the Classical Roots series, and I was so moved at one point where they were doing a slave ship scene and the choir was wailing as the soloist was singing and I kept saying to myself: ‘Ooh, I have to sing with that group,’ ” recalled Windon, who spent considerable time growing up on the east and west sides of Detroit before graduating from Mumford High School in 1984 after returning from a three-year Army National Guard stint.
Windon continued: “When I went back to my church and told Carolyn Kent, who was our minister of music at the time, that I wanted to sing with the Brazeal Dennard Chorale, she told me that I needed to learn how to sight read music a little bit, and then she volunteered to teach me on Sundays for about an hour. And within a year, I was in the Chorale. And then Brazeal Dennard started giving me lessons, which led to me getting solo parts (as a tenor) all over the country.
“Those great people, including Nina Scott with UVD, spent so much time with me because they knew I was serious about the music and it has taken me everywhere. To this day, I still get goosebumps thinking about all of the wonderful experiences.”
And Windon says his way of saying thank you to all of the “great people” that mentored him as a singer and musician is to draw on his talents to help audiences discover or rediscover the power of music, which will be his goal during United Voices of Detroit’s Juneteenth Celebration Concert.
“For me, the music is a saving grace, which takes me out of sadness, right into joy,” said Windon, who, at the end of the June 1 concert rehearsal, proudly pulled out a well-preserved United Voices of Detroit membership card that he received in 2009. “I want the same for everyone who will be coming out to a historic church for our performance. They will hear Detroiters perform some choral pieces with the kind of artistry that you don’t often get to experience. Included will be songs that brought us out of slavery — songs about courage and strength that will uplift you.
“And, as I’m singing and ministering to the audience, I will be singing and ministering to myself.”
“Promoting unity in the community through music”
Who: United Voices of Detroit (Founded in 2009)
Founder: Nina Scott
Director and CEO: Damon DeBose
Members: Soprano section — Julie Devine, Patricia Richardson Williams, Brenda Jett, Gloria Moore, Kimberly Sanders, Monique Young. Tenor section — Greg Ashe, Josh Davis, Martha Kemper, Lamar Willis, Luke Windon. Alto section — Danielle Davis, Stefanie Lewis, Patrice Pryor DeBose. Bass section — Victor Boyd, Immanuel “Bruno” Swayne, Lawrence Mitchell Matthews, Leonard Phillips, Kirron Wilson.
Upcoming free event: Juneteenth Freedom Day Concert, Saturday, June 13, 6 p.m., Plymouth United Church of Christ, 600 E. Warren Ave.
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: These Detroit singers with a rich history are united by music and more
Reporting by Scott Talley, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Scott Talley, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
