During Thanksgiving break, what started as a pre-performance warmup ended in a social media video that went viral for the Clark Atlanta University Choir’s Philharmonic Society ensemble.
Co-choir director Reggie Gibson didn’t know that one of his students was recording the warmup to add content for their social media platforms, which captured the choir’s vocal excellence instead.
“We were warming up for a performance for the Gospel Nutcracker, and we decided to use the song as a part of the warmup, just to go through some vocal and breathing exercises,” Gibson said. “I had originally stopped them earlier because we were warming up, and they said, ‘let’s keep going.’ That’s when we kept going.”
The video shows the choir singing midway through “Even Me” by Dr. Doris Wilson. Soloists and sophomore music major Marcia Bibbins finished an arousing run. Her choirmates had a resounding reaction, causing Warr and Kevin Te’onta Jackson to stand up, with Jackson gesturing to throw his laptop at Bibbins in elation.
It was then posted to their small group of followers, which stirred thousands of likes, reposts, stories, and other reactions, reaching almost 100,000 views on Instagram and 7.6 million on TikTok.
“I’ve been watching this for over 33 minutes,” one follower said.
“THERE! My shoe is THRONE!” another follower commented, adding a red high-heeled shoe emoji from another follower.
“I’m convinced this is what heaven sounds like,” and others like it were a few of the comments left on the choir’s Instagram page.
When they returned from break, all focus was on prepping for their annual holiday concert on Sun., Dec. 8. Talia Warr — the choir member who recorded the moment — showed him how many views the post had received.
“Talia stopped me after practice and said, ‘Mr. Gibson, look at this,” Gibson said. “I was looking, and I think at the time it was only 750 views, and it constantly grew and grew. I was seeing [the impressions] and checking it, and one minute it was a couple hundred thousand, and then it got to the first million and then two million.”
Gibson was excited to see the post grow in engagements and that people see the hard work they have been doing in rehearsals.
“As the magic was happening, their responses were so organic — comical, yet organic,” Gibson said. “I think that’s what captivated its originality because of their responses. They didn’t know it was going to happen.”
Gibson said the ensemble will recreate that magic at their holiday-inspired concert this weekend. He describes the show, titled “From Manger to Majesty,” as featuring a diverse selection of holiday classics, spirituals, and classical arrangements demonstrating the full gamut of vocal and choral music.
He also explains how he leads the choir with discipline and direction.
“We focus a lot on the difference between ‘good’ and ‘great’ and the extra work we put in,” Gibson said. “My motto is ‘be great on purpose,’ and recently, we adopted while being great on purpose, we want to be great ‘in’ purpose. They are vastly talented, but we want to put in that extra work on the little things that allow for them to sound amazing each and every time.”
Gibson hopes that the Philharmonic Society can go on tour next semester. The goal is to showcase the graduating seniors and upperclassmen and use the tour as a recruitment tool to enroll in CAU and maybe even their choir.
He welcomes all high school directors or students considering attending CAU and wanting to join the choir.
The concert, which is free to the public, will be on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church on Martin Luther King, Jr. Dblic.
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