The Legend Singers Chorale Ensemble will present its holiday concert “The Wonder of Christmas” at 4 p.m. Saturday Dec. 17, 2022, at First Baptist Church of Ferguson, 333 N. Florissant Road.
The 2022-23 season is the Legend Singers’ 82nd, and the ensemble has had a concert filled Christmas season. The choir performed last week at Kirkwood United Methodist Church in a pair of concerts.
Kenneth Brown Billups founded a choral group in 1940, and it was comprised 18 singers in the National Youth Act Music Project, a program of the Works Progress Administration.
Billups, a Sumner High School graduate, attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City on a music scholarship and played varsity basketball. He graduated from Lincoln with a degree in biology in 1940. In 1947 Billups earned a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University.
After teaching at Douglass High School in Webster Groves, Billups returned to Sumner and would later create and supervise the honors music program in the St. Louis Public Schools.
As president of the National Association of Negro Musicians, he influenced the St. Louis music scene, and his Legend Singers have included Grace Bumbry and Robert McFerrin. He served as director of the Legend Singers until his death in 1985.
Doris Jones Wilson, a legendary musician, composer, and award-winning choral director, served as Legend Singers’ director until her retirement in 2019.
Dwayne Buggs has served as director since Wilson’s retirement. He holds a Master of Music degree from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and devoted almost four decades to education.
His service included being a vocal music director, choral director, and curriculum Coordinator for K-12 Fine and Practical Arts in the Normandy and Ferguson-Florissant School Districts.
He was also artistic director and Dean of Arts at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School during the last five years of his educational career.
Buggs is currently the Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church minister of music. He is also the piano accompanist for the Westbrook-Green Concert Choir of East Saint Louis, Illinois.
The Legend Singers perform with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Southern Illinois University Symphony, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
The Legend Singers mission:
-Perform and preserve the music and performance practices of African Americans.
-Perform music by non-African American composers who have been influenced by African American music forms and performance practices.
-Develop Outreach programs that educate the community and public and to continue the tradition of excellence in artistic performance of African American Coral music.
There is no admission charge for “The Wonder of Christmas” concert at 4 p.m. Dec. 17 at First Baptist Church of Ferguson, 333 N. Florissant Road. For additional information, visit www.legendsingers.org.
