Donna McElroy, 2017 October 6
Donna McElroy, recording artist and Berklee Vocal department professor, discusses her early years with music, her experiences at Fisk University and finding her vocal identity, her early career in Nashville as a background vocalist, touring with Amy Grant, and as a solo recording artist. McElroy describes her arrival at Berklee, her teaching methods, her work with the Berklee Yo Team and producing student concerts, and concerts that she organized and performed in, particularly the Fisk Jubilee Singers Concert in 2016. She also shares about her recent publishing and recording projects.
Vocalist Donna McElroy (1955-) was the first African American to win the Crusade for Children singing contest in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky at age fifteen. She studied music and sang with the Fisk Jubilee singers at Fisk University, and spent many years performing as a background singer in and around Nashville. After touring with Amy Grant for nine years in the early eighties, she signed a recording contract with Warner. McElroy went on to receive a Grammy nomination in 1991 for her album Bigger World, a Best Actress Award for her role in the Circle Players’ Nunsense (1993), and a Dove award for the compilation album Songs from the Loft. She also served as a missionary with International Christian Artists Reaching the Earth in Ghana. In 1996, McElroy joined the Berklee College of Music Voice department, where she taught for more than twenty years. In addition to teaching ensembles in performance techniques and improvisation, as well as private instruction, McElroy was a core member of the Yo Team, producing Singers’ Showcase student concerts. She received faculty emeritus status in 2022.
