Remembering Dr. Rudy V. Hawkins

By UMS

The Rudy Hawkins Singers in performance of The Gospel at Colonus in the Power Center, January 1999

UMS mourns the passing of Dr. Rudy V. Hawkins, whom UMS had the pleasure of closely collaborating with during the late ’90s and early 2000s in Ann Arbor and Detroit.

UMS and the Carr Center initially engaged Detroit-based choir director and conductor Dr. Rudy Hawkins to assist in the formation of an adult mixed gospel choir formed by many of Detroit’s best singers to be the featured chorus for co-presentations of choreographer Donald Byrd’s The Harlem Nutcracker at Detroit Opera House in November 1998. The presentation was co-presented by UMS, the Carr Center (then known as the Arts League of Michigan), and Detroit Opera (then known as Michigan Opera Theater).

After an acclaimed performance run at the Detroit Opera House, the 50-member chorus, originally named the Duke Ellington Centennial Choir, became a centerpiece of UMS’s Detroit-based work and was featured in numerous UMS mainstage presentations through 2002.

In close artistic collaboration with Dr. Hawkins, UMS managed the chorus for remarkable UMS presentations including Lee Breuer and Bob Telson’s The Gospel at Colonus at the Power Center in January 1999 (see photo), return presentations of The Harlem Nutcracker — now appearing as The Rudy Hawkins Singers — in November–December 1999 (alongside a promotional appearance in the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade!), in a stand-alone choral presentation at Music Hall Detroit in December 2000, and as the featured gospel choir in Hallelujah: In Praise of Paradise Lost and Found in collaboration and in residency with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Company at the Power Center in October 2001.

As buzz of The Rudy Hawkins Singers began to spread nationally, UMS co-presented the gospel chorus in performances of Alvin Ailey’s foundational work Revelations with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Detroit Opera House in January–February 2001.

UMS’s commitment to work in Detroit was demonstrated in Rudy’s dream project: the UMS production and presentation of A Tribute to Gospel Legend Mattie Moss Clark, featuring The Rudy Hawkins Singers, honoring the Detroit legend at Hill Auditorium in January 2022.

Rudy was revered by his musical peers and colleagues and gained the trust and admiration of every member of The Rudy Hawkins Singers. Even more so than the respect he garnered as a chorus master and conductor, UMS remembers Dr. Hawkins for his kind and gentle nature, his unwavering commitment to artistic integrity, and for his love of the arts and of Detroit.