The Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. will hold its 49th Annual Convention at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Birmingham, AL, on July 23 through July 29, 2016, it was announced today by the GMWA.
Each year Bishop Albert Jamison and the Gospel Music Workshop of America strive to make the convention better than the year before. This year will be no different. Bishop Jamison has a great line up of speakers for the 49th Convention Daily Bread services that include Bishop Paul Morton, Bishop L. Spenser Smith, Prophet Todd Hall, Rev. Jasper Williams, Rev. Alyn Waller, Bishop Joseph Walker, Pastor Craig Oliver and Rev. Tommie Lewis. The evening musical events include gospel music spectaculars each night of the conference. Guest artists include Ricky Dillard, Byron Cage, Kurt Carr, John P. Kee and more. This will be a convention for the record books! The GMWA, founded by the late Reverend James Cleveland, is the world’s premier independent gospel music convention.
In March 1996, Bishop Albert L. Jamison was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. Bishop Jamison currently serves as Pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist Tabernacle in his native Brooklyn, New York; is President and Founder of Pentecost at Any Cost Ministry; is Chairman of the Board of Governors, Perfecting Christian-Pentecostal Connection; is Bishop of Finance, Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship and is on the Board of Directors, African-American Religious Connection.
As a leader in the church, Reverend Jamison exemplifies the powerful ministry of gospel music. With his guidance, the choir, “People United to Save Our Children,” has developed a rich and far-reaching ministry. The choir received the 20th Annual Dove Award for Contemporary Black Gospel Album of the Year. Bishop Jamison is nationally known as Founder and President of the Triboro Mass Choir. The choir has recorded eight albums and in 1979 was nominated for a Grammy Award for their recording, “In God’s Own Time My Change Will Come.” Under his direction, the New York State Chapter of Gospel Music Workshop of America performed a live recording and video entitled, “Moving On,” in 1994.
About GMWA
The Gospel Music Workshop of America is a Christian organization convening annually, where national performers, recording artists, new and inspiring songwriters, educators, liturgical dancers, the young and old, pastors, and others minister to each other and to the needs and directions within the African American religious experience. It has opened its doors to welcome and receive people of all races, origins, influences and cultures.
The object of the association is to perpetuate, promote and advance the Christian ideal through the medium of music by joining together gospel choirs, choruses, singers and songwriters throughout the US in a voluntary association for education, cooperation, promotion and the communication of ideas and ideals. The Gospel Music Workshop of America was incorporated in Detroit, Michigan.
The GMWA convention remains one of the most popular destinations in the year for gospel music lovers. Thousands of individuals, both registered delegates and newcomers, head to the annual meetings to get a taste of gospel’s finest and this rich tradition continues to foster the many generations of gospel music with powerful ministry, excellent training, industry networking and hours of great singing.
Since the passing of Rev. James Cleveland in 1991, the organization still marches on as one of America’s treasured music institutions. To this day, it is the largest artistic organization of its kind in the world with 75,000 members in more than 185 chapters stretching from the United States to Asia. The Gospel Music Workshop of America, also called GMWA for short, has a beautiful history that finds some of gospel’s greatest paying their dues to eventually become legends in the evolving forms of traditional and contemporary gospel.
