The Total Experience Gospel Choir is a gospel music group based in Seattle, Washington, USA, founded in 1973 by Patrinell "Pat" Wright, who continues to lead the group as of 2009. They have sung in at least 38 states and 22 countries, have performed for United States president Bill Clinton, and made at least seven recordings of their own, as well as singing on the song "Save Me" on Dave Matthews's CD Some Devil. They have appeared in television commercials ("to pay our bills") and on the public radio program A Prairie Home Companion as well as numerous other radio programs.
Wright was born in Carthage, Texas. Her father was a Baptist preacher and her mother a schoolteacher. she sang her first solo at the age of 3, and by her 14th birthday, was directing two choirs in her father's church. She graduated as valedictorian from Turner High School in Carthage, Prairie View A&M University in Hempstead, Texas and moved in 1964 to Seattle. She has had an extensive musical career in her own right, and since 1997 has been pastor of the Oneness Christian Center in Seattle, which she co-founded.
Wright began the group in 1973 as a gospel music class at Seattle's public Franklin High School. Many lives have been touched, voices lifted in praise, children mentored and at times adopted, and decades passed. For a photo essay see the website www.totalexperiencegospelchoir.org Photo Gallery.
More recently, Pastor Wright has earned the nickname "The Idol Breeder" and has become once again uniquely dinstinguished after three of her choir members became finalists on the television series American Idol. Among its former members are American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar in 2007, 2004 contestant Leah LaBelle Vladowski, and 2002 contestant Karma Johnson .
Until 1992–93, the choir was composed primarily of youth. Since that time, the choir's character has evolved. It currently has members from 6 to 65 years of age.
Since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast Areas of Louisiana and Mississippi in August 2005, Pastor Wright has dedicated many hours for hurricane relief work. One of her own teenage choir members and her younger brother were caught up in the hurricane while in South Mississippi visiting family. Upon their safe return to Seattle, Pastor Wright and Total Experience Gospel Choir devoted themselves tirelessly to hurricane relief. They visited the areas in August 2006, April 2007, March 2008, and August 2008 helping to rebuild lives and property. While there, they were featured on local television a number of times rebuilding, dedicating and celebrating with hurricane survivors during the various mission trips.
For Pastor Wright's efforts, ABC News World News Tonight named her "Person of the Week" in May 2007 as well as one of the "Persons of the Year" on a broadcast aired December 27, 2007. See related links on the website .
DirectTV on April 9, 2008 aired their special entitled "Hometown Heroes" where Pastor Wright and Total Experience Gospel Choir were honored for their work on the Gulf Coast of MS as well.
SCAN TV honored Pastor Wright in February 2008 on local television in their Black History programming where she, along with other local community members, were lauded for their contributions to Black History in the Pacific Northwest.
In October 2007, Pastor Wright and members of Total Experience Gospel Choir traveled to Busan, South Korea where they competed in the Busan International Choral Festival and Competition. The choir placed "second" and won the Silver Medal in "Ethnic" and "Pop" categories. There were 36 choirs from 11 countries in the competition.
In 2008, Pastor Wright and Total Experience Gospel Choir participated in the creation of the first of its kind "campaign CD" in an effort to help elect President Barack Obama. The CD "Seven Songs for America and One For The World" was produced by The Bergevin Brothers. All profits from "Seven Songs For America..." go to support Pastor Wright's "Seattle Artists" foundation to rebuild the lives and homes of Katrina victims in Mississippi and Louisiana. For more information about the campaign CD see www.bergevinbrothersmusic.com.
Famous quotes containing the words total, experience, gospel and/or choir:
“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“We learn the influence of our will from experience alone. And experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connexion, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The Gospel of the army is cunning, as of all other human activities. The wisdom of the snake under the meekness of the sheep is what wins out.
The first Commandment is—never let them get anything on you—
The second: Graft—get privileges others haven’t got—worm yourself into confidence
The Third—seem neat and prosperous—as if you had money in the bank—”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“O thou, with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning; turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!”
—William Blake (1757–1827)