Northrop Presents
Songs of Joy and Healing
Featuring Reginald Mobley, Countertenor, and Greg Zelek, Northrop Organist
Wednesday, April 28, 7 p.m. CT
In Person / Livestream
On Demand Through May 2
2026-27 Northrop Season
Globally renowned for his purity of tone and deft interpretation of baroque, classical and modern repertoire, Grammy-nominated countertenor Reginald Mobley makes his Northrop debut for a restorative evening of jubilant music. Mobley joins Northrop Organist Greg Zelek to skillfully explore the limitless possibilities of pairing pipe organ and voice.
Demonstrating Mobley’s adept “musical code-switching” (Chicago Reader), the unique program ranges from baroque works to gospel spirituals — featuring the lush, Afro-Romantic harmonies of Florence Price, as well as a variety of Harry Burleigh and other creative gospel arrangements.
Uplift your spirits through the balm of song with this delightful mix of genres that highlights striking similarities and beautiful contrasts.
Top image: On the left, Northrop Organist Greg Zelek. Photo © Greg Helgeson. On the right, Countertenor Reginald Mobley. Photo © Richard Dumas.
Related Links, Quotes & Reviews
“Curator, musical code-switcher, YouTube sensation: Reginald Mobley is a countertenor for our time.” — Chicago Reader
“Crystalline diction and pure, evenly produced tone.” — Miami Herald
“The voice that many in the audience left the hall raving about was that of countertenor Reginald Mobley, also pure of tone, immaculate in his articulation and with a personal approach to ornamentation that was never too much and always musical.” — The Herald
“Mobley’s voice, which seems to get better by the year, is wonderfully pristine. Like good champagne, his tone is both effervescent and rich … He does not produce sound so much as spin it in long, sumptuous phrases.” — Early Music America
“The revelation to many on the evening, this writer included, was countertenor Reginald Mobley whose full-bodied, operatic take on spiritual ‘Were You There’ brought audience members to their feet. However wonderful the orchestra was, Mobley’s a cappella verse was the night’s most spellbinding moment.” — The House That Soul Built
“There’s a hooded, velvety quality to Mobley’s countertenor, cushioning the brightness at the top of the voice and giving plenty of breadth to the bottom … His ornamentation — stretching the boundary between stylistic fidelity and deliberate anachronism — is appealing, always idiomatic on its own terms.” — Gramophone
“Greg Zelek brings new life to the organ with effortless skill and precision.” — Madison Magazine
“Zelek, a consummate artist … has the ability to make the 2-manual Aeolian-Skinner Opus 963 organ, installed in 1937, overcome both its venerability and vulnerability in a beautiful performance of carefully selected music.” — Phindie
“Greg is amazing and Northrop (all of us) is so fortunate to have him!” — Northrop Patron
“Greg Zelek’s humor and openness offered a charming window into [the musicians’] lives, enhancing the intimate, cozy atmosphere of the evening. It felt less like a formal concert and more like being welcomed into their world for a couple of hours.” — Northrop Patron
To Help You Decide
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Explore Discounts
Groups of 10 or more save 10% and pay lower per ticket processing fees on adult ticket prices for 2026-27 Season in-person events at Northrop, excluding Encore and Pick Your Price events. Discount cannot be combined with other discounts or offers.
Know Before You Go
Event Information
- Seating: General Admission
- Performance & Livestream Begins: 7 p.m. CT, April 28
- On Demand: Through 11:59 p.m. May 2
- Pick 3 or More Events and Save
If you need assistance, please call 612-624-2345, email umntix@umn.edu.
Planning Your Visit
Learn More — Explore These Themes
The content below derives from the Northrop Across Campus Program that supports Northrop’s mission toward cultivating intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come.
Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:
- Music: Organ, Choral, Arranging
- U.S. History: Civil Rights, African American Studies
- Integrative Health and Well-Being
Dive deeper with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the art form and the artistic process.
“Recounting the Countertenor” — Classical Radio Boston
“Reginald Mobley on his Grammy nod, and the Black American music that ‘links us together’” — WRTI (Radio Technical Institute of Temple University, Philadelphia)
“Music and Health” — Journal of the Australian-Traditional Medicine Society (Access via UMN Libraries)
“Music, health, and wellbeing” — Oxford University Press (Access via UMN Libraries)
“Associations between music and health-related outcomes in adult non-musicians, amateur musicians, and professional musicians-Results from a nationwide Danish study” — Nordic Journal of Music Therapy (Access via UMN Libraries)
“Sallie Martin: Mother of Gospel Music” — University of Illinois Press (Access via UMN Libraries)
“Then Sings My Soul: The Culture of Southern Gospel Music” — University of Illinois Press (Access via UMN Libraries)
Dornfeld, Hope V. “Songs of Sorrow, Hope, and Praise: Toward a Historical Analysis of Negro Spirituals.” Liberty University, 2023, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (30492534). (Access via UMN Libraries)
Harley-Emerson, Arreon. “Order My Steps: A Framework for Interpreting Negro Spirituals and Gospel Music Through Autoethnography and Testimony.” Temple University, 2025, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (32115850). (Access via UMN Libraries)
Video: “‘The Ship that Never Returned’ by Reginald Mobley, Brandon Acker and Douglas Balliett”
Video: “PURCELL // ‘O solitude, my sweetest choice’ by Reginald Mobley, Brandon Acker and Douglas Balliett”
Fugate, Bradley. “The contemporary countertenor in context: vocal production, gender/sexuality, and reception.” Boston University Theses & Dissertations, 2016.
Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
Songs of Joy and Healing pairs Northrop Organist Greg Zelek with Countertenor Reginald Mobley, highlighting the striking similarities and contrasts between musical traditions and demonstrating Mobley’s adept “musical code-switching” (Chicago Reader) by weaving together disparate genres. The program will feature the lush, Afro-Romantic harmonies of Florence Price’s jazz-influenced “Suite for Organ,” the work of gospel legend Harry Burleigh and other creative gospel arrangements.
- How does the music of the early 20th century and the Civil Rights Era reflect U.S. history?
- How does gospel and spiritual music play a role in individual and community healing?
According to Classical Radio Boston, “The three highest voice parts, from lowest to highest, are contraltos, mezzo-sopranos and sopranos. Today, the upper voice parts are predominantly associated with women, but historically, there was a surprising amount of gender variety, including boy treble singers, ‘castrati,’ who were men castrated before puberty specifically to retain their high voices, countertenors and women.” Mobley attended Oakwood University on a trumpet performance scholarship but immediately switched to vocal performance and began training as a tenor. After moving home to Gainesville, Florida, Mobley’s voice teacher discovered he could sing alto and encouraged him to switch to countertenor. After switching, Mobley never looked back.
- How have classical and popular music challenged gender norms over time?
- Have you had a similar teacher who guided you in a direction or encouraged you to try something new?
- How have gender norms influenced experiences you’ve tried or not tried?
Mobley is a dedicated advocate for diversity in music and programming. He serves as the first-ever programming consultant for the Handel and Haydn Society; is a visiting artist for diversity outreach with Apollo’s Fire; has recently been appointed as artistic advisor at the Portland Baroque Orchestra; and is leading a research project in the U.K. funded by the Arts and Humanities Council to uncover music by composers from diverse backgrounds. In an interview with Classical Post, Mobley shares, “Black people didn't just start composing in 1920. The fact is we’ve always had a seat at the table — it’s just that someone else was sitting in it. Classical music and the arts in general has always been diverse, we’ve just been focused on a subset of the very vocal majority and ignored the rest that existed out there. The time is now to widen that focus and see that everyone is represented.”
- Why do you imagine uncovering music by composers of diverse backgrounds is important? How does this project inform classical music as a genre?
- How might Mobley’s dual careers as a world-renowned performer and arts leader uniquely complement each other to dismantle traditional narratives about classical music?
- How does the diversity and universality of music challenge notions of the Western canon of classical music?
Mobley describes an important aspect of his artistic philosophy in an interview with Radio Technical Institute of Temple University, Philadelphia, saying, “Honestly and personally, I don’t think that music necessarily tells you anything — I think music asks you. It may strongly suggest, but it never tells because it requires you (the performer and the listener) to really make music happen — for it to really live and truly be something. I think what it asks in those situations is for you to bring your sense of self, your sense of integrity and sensibility to the stage.”
- What are the roles of the listener in an artistic experience, and how do you embody these in a live performance?
- How might an artist creatively express their sense of self, integrity and sensibility?
Acknowledgments
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
