Rachel Antoinette Morgan is one of a few select artists recruited to entertain recently at “The Legacy and Evolution of Gospel Music” at The Sheldon Concert Hall. Morgan, a pianist whose talent is attracting multiple invitations to perform throughout St. Louis, is a freshman at Hazelwood Central High School. She has attended Hazelwood schools since pre-kindergarten.
Evangelist Ruth Latchison-Nichols initiated the concert, which was co-sponsored by P.A.A.R. Productions. In addition, prior to her death last June, Mae Wheeler, “Lady Jazz”, was involved in the initial planning. She regularly promoted younger artists through the annual concert.
“The concert featured the evolution of gospel, which was just singing at first but expanded to gospel raps and taps,” Morgan explained. “Spiritual music isn’t just hymns, it can be classical too. You have the opportunity to exhibit the skill given from God to play the instrument.”
Morgan played Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 66 on The Sheldon Concert Hall’s Steinway Grand Piano to a packed house.
“The piano there is similar to the piano I practice on,” she said. “That made it a lot easier. I had also played there before. I was calm about it. I felt prepared enough to be able to do a good job.”
Morgan said she particularly appreciates the acoustics afforded by The Sheldon Concert Hall.
“You can feel the sound go out,” she said. “When I have played in other places, it feels like the notes are in a cloud. Because all pianos are different, performers have to cautiously adjust our technique to assure that we get the composer’s message across to the audience. It is easier to play at The Sheldon.”
Morgan definitely made an impression on the audience. Latchinson-Nichols said Morgan is “the single greatest classical music teen talent she has seen in her 46 years in Gospel music.”
Morgan, whose goal is to become a professional pianist, also plays the cello in the symphonic orchestra at HCHS. She began playing the cello to help improve her technique on the piano.
“Playing the cello will really help me improve my bass clef reading for piano,” she said.
However, she said it is hard to focus on the cello when she is required to practice three hours per day on the piano. In addition to her musical talent, Morgan has a 4.0 average in school.
Her performance at The Sheldon is only one of many of Morgan’s accomplishments. While attending Jana Elementary, Morgan won the junior talent competition of the Pre-Teen Missouri Scholarship and Recognition Program. A year later, she was the first runner-up in the talent component of the Pre-Teen America National Competition after playing “Sonatina, Op. 36, 1 & 3 in C Major” by Muzio Clementi.
In 2008, Morgan tied for the win in the senior talent component of the Pre-Teen America National Scholarship and Recognition Program. As a fifth grade student, she played Chopin’s “Waltz Op. 64, No. 1” on the piano.
Before her eighth grade year, Morgan was the youngest and only middle school student who participated in Orchestrating Diversity. She was also one of two soloists who performed at the culminating concert at Washington University in St. Louis. Orchestrating Diversity is a program of the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. The program offers intense music instruction over an eight-week period to 30 students.
What is up next for Rachel Morgan?
“We've just been informed that she will represent our State Jurisdiction again at the 104th Assembly of The International Convocation of the Church of God in Christ convening at the America's Center October 31 -November 8, 2011,” her father, The Rev. C.E. Morgan, said.
Rachel performed at the event last year. This year she will be playing Impromptu in Ab minor, Op. 90, No. 4. By Franz Schubert.