Legendary gospel music singer and songwriter Andrae Crouch will be featured at a series of free concerts, panels and presentations as part of the 2023 Pruit Memorial Symposium, "My Tribute: The Life and Legacy of Andrae Crouch," March 15-18, 2023. Crouch, who died in 2015, is among the most significant gospel artists of all time and was instrumental in creating both contemporary gospel and praise and worship music. He received Oscars and Grammy awards, recorded with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder and others, sold millions of recordings, and toured the world with his group, the Disciples.
Musicians and singers who recorded or performed with Crouch will be featured during a free tribute concert at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 17, in Jones Concert Hall on the campus of Baylor University. The concert will feature his best-known works and will include Fletch Wiley, Linda McCrary, Howard Smith, Alfie Silas Durio, Kevin Bond and others.
A Community Gospel Sing led by Stephen Newby will provide an opportunity for attendees to sing along with Crouch’s best-known compositions, including "Soon and Very Soon," "Through It All," "My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)," "I’ve Got Confidence," "The Blood (Will Never Lose Its Power)," and many others. The Community Gospel Sing is free and will take place at 7 p.m. on March 16 at Second Missionary Baptist Church, 2001 Dallas Street, Waco.
"My Tribute: The Life and Legacy of Andrae Crouch" will also feature a series of panels and presentations beginning at 9:45 a.m. March 16 and 8:30 a.m. March 17, in the Paul Powell Chapel of Truett Theological Seminary. In addition to musicians and singers, well-known scholars of gospel music and Black worship will participate, including Jimmy Abbington, Emmett R. Price, Tammy Kernodle, Birgitta Johnson, Charrise Barron, Robert Marovich, Stephen Newby, Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, Eric Reed, Brother Yusef and others.
Pastor Sandra Crouch, Andrae’s twin sister and a talented gospel artist herself, and Sherman Andrus, an original Disciple, are scheduled to appear.
The March 16 keynote address by Robert Darden and Newby will take place at a luncheon in the Great Hall of Truett Theological Seminary and requires registration. Darden and Newby are authors of the upcoming book, "Soon & Very Soon: The Triumphant Music and Ministry of Andrae Crouch," to be published by Oxford University Press.
The March 17 keynote, also in the Great Hall, will feature Kenneth Ulmer, the influential pastor of Faithful Central Bible Church in Los Angeles. Bishop Ulmer’s luncheon presentation also requires registration. Baylor graduate Joslyn Henderson will be a featured singer at both keynotes.
Registration and a complete list of presentations and concerts may be found on the Pruit Memorial Symposium website: https://pruit.web.baylor.edu.
The 2023 Pruit Memorial Symposium is sponsored by George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor Libraries, Baylor School of Music, the Center for Christian Music Studies, the Department of Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media, the Baylor Department of History, the Baylor Department of Religion, Baylor Line Foundation, Second Missionary Baptist Church, and Toliver Chapel Missionary Baptist Church.
The Pruit Memorial Symposium at Baylor University brings the perspective of Christian intellectual tradition on contemporary issues of common concern. Through the articulation of differing views within the realm of Christian understanding, Baylor aspires to be a locus for a distinctly Protestant and Christian worldview that is true to the best thoughts in Baptist tradition. In 1996, Ella Wall Prichard and the late Lev H. Prichard III of Corpus Christi established the Pruit Memorial Symposium Endowment Fund in memory of Helen Pruit Matthews and her brothers, Dr. Lee Tinkle Pruit and William Wall Pruit.
