Guyanese Gospel singer, Bevon Semple, along with three other Guyanese, were among those who braved bitter cold and an early morning rise, to be part of the Grammy award-winning choir’s performance at the inauguration.
Semple, 35, from Paradise, East Coast Demerara, Guyana, won the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation Song Festival in 1994, and went on to represent his country at the Caribbean Broadcasting Union Song Festival. There he made history as the youngest to ever represent his country successfully at this competition and from then onwards his name became a Guyanese household entity. He later migrated to the U.S., enrolling at City University while continuing to sing gospel.
New York Senator, Chuck Schumer, Chairman of the 2013 Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, invited Pastor Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle to bring its Grammy award-winning choir to perform at the inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.
The choir sang for three-and-a-half minutes just before Vice President Joe Biden took his oath of office for a second term and truly seemed to impress the President who kept on looking back and up with a smile on his face. They were under the direction of Carol Cymbala. The 280-strong choir and orchestra came up with a triumphant new arrangement of the patriotic hymn, whose lyrics tell of the “coming of the Lord” whose “truth is marching on.”
Other musical tributes at the inauguration came from The United States Marine Band; PS 22 of Staten Island, New York and the Lee University Festival Choir, Cleveland, Tennessee as well as Beyonce and Kelly Clarkson.
See Semple performing here:
