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Auburn faculty member Rosephanye Powell commissioned to compose work for America’s 250th anniversary

Auburn University Professor of Voice Rosephanye Powell has been commissioned to compose a new choral work commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and the U.S. Army, to be observed in 2026.

The commission was initiated by Constance Chase during her tenure as director of the West Point Glee Club at the United States Military Academy. Chase led the ensemble for 26 years and commissioned numerous works supported by a graduate-funded endowment focused on cultural enrichment for cadets and expanding the choir’s national presence.

“The goal of commissioning is to present new music that showcases not only the ensemble’s capabilities but also communicates the realistic, but relentlessly positive and solution-oriented outlook I observed in the cadets themselves every day,” Chase wrote.

As planning began for the dual 250th anniversaries, Chase sought a composition that was both stirring and inspirational and flexible for performance. The commission called for piano accompaniment suitable for touring concerts, with an option to score the work for concert band with choir. The West Point Band, described as the nation’s oldest active-duty band, frequently collaborates with the Glee Club.

The commission also marked the final one initiated by Chase prior to her retirement in September 2025.

Chase said her decision to invite Powell grew out of long familiarity with her work, including the a cappella composition “The Word Was God,” which Chase programmed with the West Point Glee Club and several community choirs. “Dr. Rosephanye Powell is the real deal,” she wrote, citing Powell’s growing catalogue and her presentation at the 2021 National American Choral Directors Association Virtual Conference.

Powell accepted the commission despite other professional commitments, citing the significance of the anniversary and the military service of her father, uncles and other family members in the U.S. Army.

The resulting composition consists of two pieces that form a cohesive set but can also be performed independently. The first, “Songs for the People,” sets a poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, a historically significant author and activist born in 1825. Chase described the opening piano gesture as evoking “church or school bells calling together a community of an earlier day,” and said the music conveys Harper’s call for “the best from every part of our society” in a contemporary context.

The second piece, “Nothing Without Love,” draws inspiration from 1 Corinthians 13, often referred to as the New Testament’s “Love” chapter, and incorporates original text by Powell. The work includes the line, “…If I serve in the name of peace or of justice but do not serve in love, I am nothing,” underscoring the central theme of service grounded in love.

Chase noted that Powell’s “warm, sweeping musical phrases convey an utter depth of meaning without a hint of sentimentality.”

The band arrangement for the work was created by Johnnie Vinson, a retired Auburn University faculty member who retired as director of bands and professor of music emeritus, and an internationally recognized writer of music for band. Vinson has more than 550 published arrangements and compositions and serves as an exclusive writer for the Hal Leonard Corporation. Powell said she specifically requested Vinson for the project because his arrangements are “of a superb quality.”

Although unable to attend the premiere in Knoxville, Tennessee, in March, Chase said she was deeply moved after viewing the recorded livestream.

“I hoped for pieces that would be beautiful, yes, inspirational, yes, but that would capture the most noble qualities of what we like to consider as the American spirit, our highest and best,” she wrote. “That is what Dr. Powell delivered.”

The works were also praised by the Rev. Daniel Smith‑Toven, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and director of the West Point Glee Club, who described them as “exquisite examples of the power of great text set to beautiful music.”

“The texts speak so deeply to undergirding values that imbue our West Point cadets with a passion for service,” Smith‑Toven said. “They serve the people for whom songs are sung and know that they indeed cannot serve if it is not with love.”

Powell is professor of voice at Auburn University, where she teaches applied voice, art song literature and vocal pedagogy, conducts the women’s chorus, and co‑conducts the Concert Choir and AU Gospel Choir. She holds degrees from Florida State University, Westminster Choir College and Alabama State University, and previously served on the faculties of Philander Smith College and Georgia Southern University.

Recognized as one of America’s premier women composers of choral and solo vocal music, Powell’s works are published by the Hal Leonard Corporation, Oxford University Press, Gentry Publications, Alliance Music Publications and Shawnee Press, among others. Her song cycles are performed by professional artists throughout the United States and Europe.

Her honors include the Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award from Harvard University’s Office for the Arts in 2022, the Living Legend Award from the California State University African Diaspora Sacred Music Festival and the Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award.

Smith‑Toven said the ensemble looks forward to presenting the works “with joy and fervor, for years to come.”

Tags: Music Faculty Arts and Culture