Love United Gospel Choir

The Love United Gospel Choir, a UT student organization, started in 1977 as the John 23rd Singers, and they were based at St. John Baptist Church in Alcoa. Love United Gospel Choir helps keep alive gospel music in the African American tradition while being a proponent of the university’s Ready for the World initiative, which emphasizes intercultural and international opportunities for students. The choir is a charter member of the National Association of Collegiate Gospel Choirs for the United States and Canada and was recognized at the Association’s Emerging Leaders Summit in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2007. The organization received Chancellor’s Citations in 1992 and 2007. It holds a fall and spring concert. In 2005 it formed a dance ministry, Touching Hearts, which performs during the choir’s intermissions, and in 2008 it formed a praise team that includes two members from each section of the choir and that performs as the opening for the choir. It also has a media ministry, which is in charge of all audio and video recordings.