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The Kona Choral Society provides an opportunity to honor the rich legacy and influence of African-American music at its 8th Annual Gospel Heritage Concert, “Guide My Feet.”

The free community concert will take place from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15, at Maka‘eo Pavilion at Old Airport in Kailua-Kona.

The annual concert has become a notable component in a series of events in the Kona community that celebrate and honor Black History Month.

Following on the heels of the mid-January Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, the upcoming show will be a musical tribute to one of the most significant forms of American musical expression — spirituals and gospel music.

KCS artistic director and conductor Susan McCreary Duprey said that, along with her 90-member chorus, featured vocal soloists will include Binti Bailey and Nadari Hockenhull, and instrumentalists will be Gloria Juan, collaborative pianist; Sharon Cannon, percussionist; Jason Stith, bass guitarist; and Daniel Heathcock, keyboardist.

The repertoire will not only follow the natural development of the historic musical genres, but will highlight that gospel and spiritual music serve as a powerful expression of faith, history and resilience.

“This music transcends time and place. It connects and brings people together by sharing the story of the history of the African-American experience and identity,” Duprey said. “It’s a story of enslavement, human suffering, and the overcoming of pain that speaks to all of us. This is what we are sharing here in 91直播 with our broader community.”

Duprey, who first experienced gospel music as the choir director at the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey, explained that the sequence of the show’s lineup will begin with spirituals, with songs including “Guide My Feet,” followed by “I Stood on the River of Jordan” and several other selections from the African-American Heritage Hymnal.

The second half of the program features some of KCS’s favorite gospel numbers like “He Never Failed Me Yet” and “He’ll Make a Way.”

Duprey said the historical significance of spirituals is because the music is an older art form than gospel, stemming from the enslavement period of the rural plantations of the deep South and were originally sung a cappella, emphasizing the melody, with no known composer.

By contrast, gospel music, influenced by spirituals, hailed from urban areas, with composers that emphasized thoughts about faith and devotional themes with more upbeat sounds, and instruments such as keyboard and electric bass. Duprey said gospel encouraged improvisation as part of the idiom, which in turn led to jazz.

The concert is free, and no ticket is required. A freewill offering will be taken to offset the costs associated with the performance.

For more information about the concert visit www.KonaChoralSociety.org or email KonaChoralSociety@gmail.com.