Lonnie Norwood is Winner of Modern-Day Spiritual Composition Commission
The Spirituals Project (TSP) at the University of Denver is pleased to announce that composer Lonnie Norwood Jr. has been selected as the recipient of its 2026 Modern-Day Spiritual Composition Commission. Norwood will receive a $7,500 commission award for his composition, “Dat’s Alrigh’.”
Norwood’s winning work creatively blends the musical and cultural legacy of Negro Spirituals with contemporary musical idioms and social themes. Designed for community singing, “Dat’s Alrigh’” reflects the participatory spirit of historic Spirituals while engaging modern audiences and addressing present-day concerns of justice, equity, and collective identity.
“We are proud to premiere Norwood’s work and share the sentiments of his music,” said M. Roger Holland, director of The Spirituals Project. “We hope it will inspire others to continue the work of justice and equity in their communities.”
The composition will be premiered by The Spirituals Project Choir, together with the audience, at TSP’s Spring Concert on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. in Gates Hall at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Denver campus. The concert, presented by CPR Classical, will conclude The Spirituals Project’s triennial National Conference on Spirituals. (Tickets & details here)
About the Commission
The Spirituals Project’s Modern-Day Spiritual Commission sought a new work that captures the contemporary struggles of those seeking justice and freedom from discrimination and oppression, especially African Americans. The commissioned piece was required to be accessible, participatory, and suitable for communal singing, with original lyrics that inspire and foster community, collective identity, and societal change.
About the Composer
Lonnie Norwood, Jr., a native of Chicago’s South Side, is a conductor, educator, arranger, and Africana music specialist whose work centers on the intersection of music, culture, and community. He holds a BA in Music from Luther College, where he studied with the late Weston Noble, and an MM in voice from Florida State University, and has taught K–12 music in Illinois and Florida. A versatile performer, he has collaborated with artists including Lizz Wright, Nona Hendryx, Keith Urban, Ricky Dillard, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Since 2012 he has served with Uniting Voices Chicago as Director of Africana Studies, leading ensembles in major venues, national tours, and broadcast appearances. A sought-after clinician in African American sacred music, he has presented workshops for ACDA and at institutions including Harvard, Temple, Indiana University, and the University of Toronto, and collaborates internationally with Village Harmony. His debut EP ROOTED was released in 2021, he was named Best Music Teacher in Chicago by the Chicago Reader in 2023, and in 2025 he was appointed director of the Leo High School Choir.
For more information, visit www.lonnienorwood.com.
About Spirituals
The Negro Spiritual was used to inspire and invigorate an oppressed people during the period of slavery in the United States. First sung by enslaved Africans in the 18th and 19th centuries, these songs affirmed the humanity of the enslaved and were used to resist oppression. In the mid-twentieth century, the Spirituals became foundational to the Freedom Songs that were sung during the Civil Rights Movement. They were adopted and transformed, often naming the obstacles to freedom particular to that time, whether instruments of abuse such as fire hoses or threat of the jail house, or individuals such as Police Chief Pritchett of Albany, Georgia and Bull Connor, Commissioner of Public Safety in Birmingham, Alabama.
Spirituals and the Freedom Songs they inspired were communal and participatory, inspiring the people to fight for freedom and justice—even helping them enact new societal models. Often led by a song leader, their simple melodies and repetitive lyrics, many times strophic in nature, helped people easily participate in their singing—in churches, outdoor marches, sit-ins, and other community spaces. As circumstances changed, singers altered lyrics to address specific challenges and contexts. These songs are regarded as historical documents, conveying the struggles, hopes, imaginations, and triumphs of the communities of the times in which they were sung.
About The Spirituals Project
The Spirituals Project is a community organization dedicated to preserving and revitalizing Spirituals, through musical, educational, and social justice work. Their work centers around a community choir open to all. Their mission is to preserve and revitalize the music and teachings of the sacred songs called “Spirituals,” created and first sung by enslaved Africans in America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Spirituals uplift in times of crisis, heal, comfort, inspire and instill hopes and dreams, thereby transforming individuals, communities, and whole societies.
