Dr. Judith Christie McAllister Joins Gospel Performance Summer Program as Artist-in-Residence

Berklee’s annual Gospel Performance Summer Program will celebrate its third year on the Boston campus from July 22–26, 2024. Launched by the Africana Studies Division in 2022, the immersive five-day program is open to high school students ages 15 and older with at least six months of instrumental or vocal experience.

This year's Gospel Performance Summer Program will feature Grammy-nominated choir director, songwriter, and producer Dr. Judith Christie McAllister as the visiting artist-in-residence. With a career spanning more than 40 years in music ministry, she is widely known as a trailblazer for ushering in the praise and worship movement in the African American church. Her signature songs “High Praise” and “Hallelujah You’re Worthy” have helped to break social and racial barriers in the church through regular performances in multiracial Sunday morning worship services around the world. Her theory is that “worship is the answer to racism.”

Christie McAllister’s love of music came from growing up in a Caribbean household, where her mother was a pianist for their church. Trained as a classical pianist, it was not until she was a teenager that she ventured into gospel music. Influenced by singers Andraé Crouch, Walter Hawkins, James Cleveland, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin, she founded her own label, Judah Music. In 2001, she produced, arranged, and released her debut album, Send Judah First, followed two years later by her sophomore album, Raise the Praise. In 2006 and 2011, she released her third and fourth albums respectively, In His Presence: Live! and Sound the Trumpet.

An Oral Roberts University scholar, Christie McAllister served for 17 years as the worship leader for West Angeles Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and 13 years as executive director of the church’s Music and Worship Arts Department. It was at West Angeles Church where she initiated and coproduced West Angeles COGIC Mass Choir’s project, No Limit, which earned her a Grammy nomination in 2008. As the former president of the COGIC International Music Department, Christie McAllister produced the 2011 album The St. Louis Experience (Watch Me Praise Him) and the recently released We Must Never Forget, a tribute to COGIC’s heritage and founder.

"In three short years, it's amazing to see the increased demand for this program both locally and globally,” said Emmett G. Price III, founding dean of the Africana Studies Division. “This year's Gospel Performance Summer Program featuring both Dr. Judith Christie McAllister and our first Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Teresa Hairston Jackson not only reveals our commitment to the elevation of gospel music as an art form and a foundational cultural expression, but also the importance of creating pathways and portals into the industry for young people."

The Gospel Performance Summer Program will offer ensemble rehearsals, technique-in-performance classes, gospel history discussions, and a master class led by Christie McAllister. Additionally, there will be a presentation on the gospel music industry covering performance and business techniques while also exploring the genre's cultural relevance and its connection to contemporary music.

On Thursday, July 25, students in the program will perform a free final concert under the direction of Christie McAllister, who will be inducted into the Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Hosted by Dr. Teresa Hairston Jackson, the musical presentation will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center.

Limited seats are available for the Gospel Performance Summer Program. Read more about the program.