Pruit Symposium Honors Life and Legacy of Grammy Award-Winning Musician Andraé Crouch

March 1, 2023
2023 Pruit Memorial Symposium

Baylor University's 2023 Pruit Memorial Symposium, 'My Tribute: The Life and Legacy of Andraé Crouch,'?' will be held March 15-18, featuring a series of free concerts, panels and presentations honoring one of the most significant gospel artists of all time.

Media Contact: Lori Fogleman, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-709-5959
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WACO, Texas (March 1, 2023) – The music of the legendary gospel music singer and songwriter Andraé Crouch will be featured at a series of free concerts, panels and presentations as part of Baylor University’s 2023 Pruit Memorial Symposium, “My Tribute: The Life and Legacy of Andraé Crouch,” which will be held March 15-18.

Crouch, who died in 2015, is among the most significant gospel artists of all time and instrumental in creating both contemporary gospel and praise and worship music. He received seven Grammy awards and an Academy Award nomination for his film score for “The Color Purple.” He also recorded with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder and others, sold millions of recordings and toured the world with his group, the Disciples.

Featured community events

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. Thursday, March 16, at Second Missionary Baptist Church, 2001 Dallas St., Waco.

Musicians and singers who recorded or performed with Crouch will be featured during a free tribute concert at 7 p.m. 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.

“My Tribute: The Life and Legacy of Andrae Crouch” also will feature a series of panels and presentations beginning at 9:45 a.m. Thursday, March 16, and 8:30 a.m. Friday, March 17, in the Paul W. Powell Chapel of Baylor’s George W. 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.

Keynote speakers

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 Piper Great Hall at Truett Seminary and requires registration. Darden and Newby are authors of the upcoming book, “Soon & Very Soon: The Triumphant Music and Ministry of Andraé Crouch,” to be published by Oxford University Press.

The March 17 keynote, also in Piper 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.

ABOUT THE PRUIT MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM

The 2023 Pruit Memorial Symposium is sponsored by George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor Libraries, Baylor School of Music, the Dunn 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 world view 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.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.