About Elevate Vocal Arts, Elevation, and its Directors:

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Elevate Vocal Arts (Organization)

Elevate Vocal Arts creates performance and education opportunities and expands creative workforce development opportunities for individuals from historically marginalized communities to develop as professional Vocal Artists who speak to our time's relevant issues through music, storytelling, and spoken word, strengthening our democracy.

 

EVA provides workforce development opportunities to Vocal Artists and Vocal Arts Apprentices who tell stories that inspire, activate, and enliven community, civic engagement, and democracy. By telling stories through song, spoken word, and storytelling, Vocal Artists envision and create new possibilities, thus expanding our creative economy and transforming our community and world.

 

Elevation (Ensemble)

EVA’s flagship, all-professional performing ensemble, Elevation, is Delaware’s only professional vocal ensemble. Elevation performances fuse traditional, classical choral music with jazz, hip-hop, R&B, storytelling, and spoken word. Unique to our model and our repertoire, we consider the vocal arts to be more than just singing and are inclusive of the many ways the human voice is used in creative and artistic expressions.

 

Elevation self-produces performances throughout Delaware annually. Performances are produced in New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County. In addition to these self-produced concerts, Elevation is presented by colleges and universities, arts and culture venues, and houses of worship.

 

More than just performers, Elevation’s Vocal Artists mentor our Vocal Arts Apprentices and support Delaware arts educator professional development and school-based residencies.

 

Arreon A. Harley-Emerson (Artistic Director)

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Arreon A. Harley-Emerson graduated from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, with bachelor’s degrees in Music Theory & Composition and Vocal Performance (opera). There he studied piano with Dr. Lisa Weiss, voice with Mrs. Betty Ridgeway, and conducting with Dr. Elisa Koehler. He received master’s of music degrees in Choral Conducting and Vocal Performance from the University of Delaware School of Music, studying Choral Conducting with Dr. Paul Head and Voice with Dr. Noel Archambeault. Mr. Harley-Emerson is a doctoral candidate and university fellow at the Boyer School of Music and Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has had the opportunity to conduct in venues such as St. Peter’s  Basilica in Vatican City, The Kimmel Center for the Arts in Philadelphia, and the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

 

Mr. Harley-Emerson has held a number of teaching and artistic director positions. He served as Director of Music and Operations of the Choir School of Delaware from June 2013 through December 2022. In this position, he was responsible for the musical components of the renowned Choir School program as well as serving as Executive Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the organization. An avid researcher and presenter, Mr. Harley-Emerson has contributed a chapter to The Oxford Handbook for Choral Pedagogy entitled “The Gang Mentality of Choirs: How Choirs Have the Capacity to Change Lives.” He also has a TEDx Talk that bears the same title and contributed to the research literature regarding culturally responsive choral and classroom practice.

 

Committed to the principles of  Access, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Restorative Practice (ADEIBR), Mr. Harley-Emerson has established a thriving consultancy, Equity Sings, to assist arts and culture nonprofit organizations in remaining relevant in the 21st century. His work includes longitudinal studies, strategic planning, Board Excellence training, resource and asset development, and board diversification. Mr. Harley-Emerson currently serves as the National Chair of the American Choral Directors Association’s Diversity Initiatives Committee. An active member of the Wilmington, Delaware community, Mr. Harley-Emerson is on the Delaware Arts Alliance’s Board of Directors, where he serves as President of the Board and chairs the Advancement Committee, which is tasked with fundraising, membership development, and DEIB.

 

In addition to conducting and performing classical and operatic works, Mr. Harley-Emerson is an avid lover of musical theater. When not performing, you can find him indulging in his true passion…potatoes! He has never met a potato that he did not eat!

 

Jillian Harrison-Jones (Associate Artistic Director)

Jillian Harrison-Jones, from Rochester, NY, is the Music Director of MUSE Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir, and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting. She also has earned degrees and certifications from Lincoln University (PA), Roberts Wesleyan College (NY), and the University of Connecticut (CT). While in Connecticut, she held appointments as the Assistant Conductor of the Willimantic Symphony Orchestra as well as the Assistant Director of the UConn Women’s Choir. Jillian is currently a Professor of Music at Butler & Ball State Universities, and serves as Director of Choral Music at the historic Witherspoon Presbyterian Church (IN).

 

Jillian’s background is rooted in the African American Gospel experience, a tradition of jubilant and vibrant performance practice, which actively and consistently engages in hand clapping, choreography, soul-stirring song selections and audience participation. She is also a classically trained singer and choral conductor, anchored in formal training, technique and theory. She is very well-versed in choral music of various styles, genres, and complexities and has vast experience in leading large and small choral groups. Jillian has performed as a singer, conductor, and clinician with the Cincinnati Youth Choir and the Jeremy Winston Chorale in many countries around the world, including Japan, Ireland, the Czech Republic, South America, and France.

 

As a lyric soprano, vocal coach, conductor, educator, and published author, Jillian’s research interest is in the performance practice and scholarship of African American Spirituals and Gospel Music, and devotes her career to redeeming the forgotten and lesser known choral works of African American composers such as Glenn Burleigh, Undine Smith Moore, and more. Jillian is married to the Rev. Dr. Winterbourne Harrison-Jones, who serves as the Senior Pastor of the historic Witherspoon Presbyterian Church (IN) and Board President of the Asante Art Institute of Indianapolis.