TERRANCE KELLY, DIRECTOR

Terrance Kelly has garnered extensive musical credentials in both gospel and jazz music. His operatic range and joyous emotional feel for the music make him a popular soloist as well as an accomplished director, composer, and arranger. His credits include choral arrangements on albums by Linda Ronstadt and the Kronos Quartet and gospel arrangements of popular music for TV and video soundtracks. In addition, he wrote or arranged most of the music for each of the choir’s albums. Mr. Kelly received an Emmy Award for his choral arrangement of OIGC’s KGO-TV public service announcement.

In 2005, he received the Local Heroes Award from KQED Television for his directorship of the Oakland Interfaith Youth Choir and was also honored at the Gospel Music Awards. In 2013, he was awarded the Dr. Edwin Hawkins Excellence Award.

Mr. Kelly currently serves as Minister of Magnification at Oakland’s Imani Community Church. He has traveled as far as Australia and Israel to teach gospel music and, since 1982, has served as Gospel Choir Director for Jazz Camp West, hosted by Living Jazz. In addition to his other endeavors, he is a semi-regular member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus.

His father, the late Ed Kelly, was an esteemed jazz and gospel pianist. His mother, the late Faye Kelly, was a gospel choir director and pianist.

OAKLAND INTERFAITH GOSPEL CHOIR

Founded in 1986, the mission of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir is to inspire joy and unity among all people through Black gospel and spiritual music traditions. The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir weaves together more than 300 singers across multiple choirs from a wide range of faiths, races, and cultures. The Oakland Interfaith Youth Choir, created in 1997, provides musical, educational, and social opportunities for Bay Area youth, ages 12-17, as well as the chance for mentoring and college scholarships. The non-audition Oakland Interfaith Community Choir, beginning in 2013 with 30 members, now boasts a roster of 180 members rehearsing once a month and performing several times throughout the year. In 2021, due to the pandemic, the virtual Oakland Interfaith World Choir was formed and organizes 1 to 2 projects each year. The summer of 2022 saw the acquisition of the Oakland Youth Chorus, expanding the total Oakland Interfaith community of choirs to six, and bolstering OIGC’s youth program and outreach. Find out more at www.oigc.org.