02/08/07 — Mount Olive College singing group to perform

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Mount Olive College singing group to perform

By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on February 8, 2007 1:48 PM

MOUNT OLIVE -- Praise Ensemble, a gospel performance group at Mount Olive College, is taking to the road in the coming weeks as part of Black History Month.

Originally formed in 2004 by Warren Jones, a minister, the group was revived in 2006 by Irving G. Glenn, II, a student at the college who is also a minister. Though the group is small in number, the faithful few are spreading the gospel wherever they are asked, he said.

"It's not about the quantity but the quality," he said. "We are more than just a choir -- we are a movement and a ministry."

Members include Brenita Jones and Gary Barnes, both of Goldsboro; Nikkie Holley of Mount Olive; Brenda Lee of Faison; Samantha Glass of Greenville; Katherine Cahoon of Columbia, N.C.; Irving Glenn II of New Bern; Andrew Grubbs of Elizabeth City; Roy Harris of Erwin; Yolanda Henderson of Snow Hill; Jeanine Jenkins of Spring Lake; Tynisha Wiley of Camden, New Jersey; Sharon Perkins of Norfolk, Va., Va.; Carley Moore of Johnsonville, S.C.; and Darrius Moore of Baltimore, Md.

The group features a mixture of old familiar hymns as well as rhythm and blues and gospel. It is that soulful approach that elicited an invitation to perform at East Carolina University later this month as part of a Black History Month concert. They are scheduled to perform in Wright Auditorium on Feb. 17 at 5 p.m.

Praise Ensemble is also regularly asked to perform at Mount Olive College and in churches and schools around the area.