‘Gospel Voices of OC’ Ventures Through the Eras of Black History

Kristina M. Garcia
6 minutes ago
9 min read

As Juneteenth meets America’s 250th anniversary, the Arts & Learning Conservatory’s “Gospel Voices of OC” explores Black resilience and innovation in a one-night-only show at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on June 27.

Singer and pianist Nina Simone was one of the historical Black icons from history honored at the 2025 “Gospel Voices of OC.” Photo courtesy of Arts & Learning Conservatory

Juneteenth overlaps with the nation’s 250th anniversary, making this season a special celebration, especially for the nonprofit Arts & Learning Conservatory, which puts on the “Gospel Voices of OC” every year during the Juneteenth season. This year’s performance will take place at the Irvine Barclay Theatre at 7 p.m. June 27.

“By the time you leave a production like ‘Gospel Voices,’ you'll feel like Broadway meets the Black church,” said Debora Wondercheck, founder of the Costa Mesa-based Arts & Learning Conservatory and producer of the show. It has the “high caliber of a Broadway show, and it's also bringing in the elements of what you'd experience if you were sitting in a pew, listening to a gospel choir at a Black church.”

For the past four years, “Gospel Voices of OC” has showcased at Chapman University’s Musco Center for the Arts. But this year, the production has found a new home at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

The production will be swapping the 1,044-seat theater for an intimate 756-seat venue. Although Chapman University’s Musco Center for the Arts is “a beautiful venue,” Irvine Barclay Theatre is known to be more supportive of cultural experiences and attracting people of all different backgrounds, Wondercheck said.

PHOTO 1: “We’re trying to make sure that we perpetuate these art forms,” said production manager Bruce Cecil. “Tap dancing is an art form that came out of the Black experience and has almost disappeared.” PHOTO 2: Dancers take a bow at the 2025 “Gospel Voices of OC.” PHOTO 3: Once the choir is picked, they have five rehearsals to practice before the night of the show. PHOTO 4: Influential jazz bassist Ron Carter was honored at the 2025 Gospel Voices of OC performance. Photo courtesy of Arts & Learning Conservatory

A History Lesson through Harmonies

“Gospel Voices of OC” brings art forms from the Black experience that have almost gone away to the forefront, such as tap dancing or an instrument whose true origins may surprise the audience.

“We’re trying to make sure that we perpetuate these art forms,” said production manager Bruce Cecil. “We spend a lot of time on gospel and connect the dots of how gospel spawned the blues and R&B. Yes, it’s entertainment, but it’s edu-matainment too.”

He added, “We’re educators too at the end of the day, because we're interested in making sure our people get brought up.”

The production combines an array of arts featuring spoken word, theater, choir, band, dance and orchestra, culminating to tell the story of the footprints left by African American artists, innovators and pioneers who have shaped American culture.

The performance opens up starting in the 1700s, making its way to the 1800s, then going into the blues and jazz era, and segueing into gospel music.

Expanding from the Gospel Voices of OC’s theme of “History Through Harmony” from its first year, the theme for its fifth season is “A Chorus of Change, A Legacy of Opportunity.”

“We're celebrating the imprint and the core of African American history in American history. We're honoring innovators of not just America that happen to be African American, but innovators that have impacted the world,” Wondercheck said.

Some of this year’s African American icons who will be honored during the performance include animator Floyd Norman, Dr. Charles Drew and inventor Garrett Morgan.

Norman is Disney’s first African American animator and has worked on many Disney classics, including “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Sword and the Stone,” “The Jungle Book,” and “Monsters Inc.,” which only scratches the surface of the extensive work he has done with Disney and Pixar.

At over 90 years old, this Disney Legend continues to work in the industry with his most recent projects being the character designer for “The Greatest Gift” in 2025 and a storyboard artist for a segment in “Disney Jr.’s Ariel” in 2024, according to IMDb.

Drew held many titles such as an educator, surgeon, researcher and advocator, but one of his most prominent was the “Father of the Blood Bank.”

During World War II, when Great Britain needed blood the most, Drew invented blood banks which revolutionized blood plasma in the way it was processed, stored and transported. The blood banks were used to treat military and civilian casualties, and later used to provide blood to the U.S. Army and Navy, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Drew’s work continues to save millions of lives every year, with the American Red Cross reporting that “every two seconds, someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion.”

Morgan is known for pioneering important tools for public safety, such as the three-way traffic signal and the safety hood, which eventually became the gas mask. The ideas behind these inventions came after realizing the need for them in the community from preventable deaths if the appropriate tools existed.

Though Drew and Morgan created something that catapulted human survival, they dealt with arbitrary restrictions instated by an America that didn’t want to be saved by the blood of a Black man, or purchase lifesaving equipment from a Black inventor. These restrictions were discrimination and racism.

Drew and Morgan had to work twice as hard, or, like Morgan, do workarounds in order to get his products in the hands of people who needed them.

A common tale that is still repeated in this century, a story that Wondercheck and countless other people in the Black community are all too familiar with.

Wondercheck founded the nonprofit Arts & Learning Conservatory to “deliver world-class performing arts education to students of every age and background, ensuring high quality and opportunities for all.” The conservatory accomplishes this by designing arts education programs and bringing them to school campuses across Southern California, according to its website.

From what started as a summer camp with 13 string musicians and eight actors, has grown to the Arts & Learning Conservatory that’s impacted over 36,000 children since its start 23 years ago.

Wondercheck is the only African American woman in Orange County who owns a theater. The founder has garnered the respect of the classical community due to her work in the community for the past 28 years and her excellence as a cellist and orchestra conductor, but “I’m still who I am,” Wondercheck said.

Despite her status, recognition and impact in the arts for the youth, Wondercheck has lost funding since Trump came into office.

“I have to pave — literally pave a way — with others behind me, of course,” Wondercheck said. “But it has not been easy being who I am in this county, but because of the excellence that I have brought with children through my conservatory musical theater, dance, singing, playing instruments and people see what they are able to do, then I have the respect. But I have to work twice as hard to even have a seat.”

Cecil added, “You said it. You have to fight twice as hard, so that makes it four times as hard because we (already) have to fight twice as hard in L.A.”

Founder of the Arts & Learning Conservatory Debora Wondercheck is also the producer of “Gospel Voices of OC.” Photo courtesy of Arts & Learning Conservatory

Behind the curtains of the Arts & Learning Conservatory

Growing up in the ‘40s, Wondercheck’s mother didn’t have the opportunity to play a musical instrument due to systemic issues at her school in Chicago. Her mother’s family was the only Black family in an all-white school in the Chicago area. As a result of that experience, Wondercheck’s mother wanted all her children to play a musical instrument.

Wondercheck was raised as the youngest of seven children in her family. Out of seven, five had full-ride scholarships to different universities across the nation due to their talent, but it was no easy feat.

At the age of 5, Wondercheck was taking private lessons. Her parents paid what they could afford, but it was primarily covered by scholarships from the music school they attended. By the time she was 10 years old, she had five years of private lessons and this little elementary school kid sounded more like a high school student, Wondercheck said.

But in the midst of all the music, there was domestic violence between Wondercheck’s parents. Wondercheck’s mother knew that she wouldn’t be able to take seven kids out of a bad situation, but she could make it with four.

Once the second child got a scholarship, it was all hands on deck.

“This God-fearing, sweet woman turned into a drill instructor, and she's like, ‘OK, everyone practice, practice, practice.’ So the third one got his scholarship, and when that happened, us four kids with my mom, literally in one night, escaped from our home,” Wondercheck said.

At the age of 10, Wondercheck remembers her mother telling her to bring her suitcase and put the cello on her back as they left Chicago and escaped on a train to Denver. Wondercheck and her family were at a women’s battered shelter for a few months, until her father found them and they needed to escape again.

They were jumping shelter to shelter, city to city, in order to escape, hide and stay safe.

The final school Wondercheck and her siblings attended was a performing arts and magnet school, and it was right across the street from the women’s shelter where they lived.

“I was just afraid of everybody and I was afraid my mom's life was going to get taken. I was in a really dark place, but the arts brought out the best in me. And when I would play my cello in the little group at the school I attended, they didn't see me as the homeless kid across the street. They saw me as this amazing cellist,” Wondercheck said.

She added, “Because of the voice of music and the arts, (the other students) didn't look down on me. They elevated me, which is what I didn’t know I needed, but I did, being homeless and all that, (music and the arts are) what gave me my voice, and it gave me confidence.”

Wondercheck took her lived experiences and her mother’s dream to create the Arts & Learning Conservatory.

The founder said 95% of the conservatory’s work is on school campuses. The conservatory strives to be in all kinds of different neighborhoods and go into districts/schools where there will be empty music rooms or weak school and music programs because the funding isn’t there to support it.

If it’s musical theater that a school wants, she said they’ll bring theater in a box, complete with a director, music directors, choreographer, a costume team, lighting, sound, backdrops and put on a show with the kids that “makes you feel like you’re at a real musical theater production,” she said.

Much like her own story, Wondercheck wants to bring the power of the arts to children who may be going through tough times or are in horrific situations in order to help those kids find their own voice and confidence, like she found hers.

“The arts are where we belong, and we have a sense of belonging together. It's the core of anyone's culture. It's the arts, and it kills me when schools cut programs left and right and don't see the value that it helps the whole person,” Wondercheck said.

Gospel Voices of OC plays a vital role in Wondercheck’s mission as the proceeds go directly to supporting scholarships and arts education programming for the Arts & Learning Conservatory to help thousands of children excel in the arts across Southern California.

“We have the children involved in the choir and different aspects of (Gospel Voices of OC), and they're mentored by some of these professional musicians and singers. We envelop our kids with these professionals to make the show. So if anything, I hope people understand that for the youth that we're serving, we want them to have a place that they can call home and to have a voice,” Wondercheck said.

Debora Wondercheck, who is quoted in this story, is a member of the advisory board of Culture OC.