The annual Summertime Gospelfest concert on Thursday, June 16th will be an even more special event this year as members of the legendary Speer Family come to central Illinois to celebrate their 90th Anniversary. The concert begins at 7:00 p.m. at the Caterpillar Performing Arts Center at Five Points Washington. Doors open at 6:15 p.m.
The Speer Family is a Southern Gospel group started in 1921 that is credited with the creation of many southern gospel classic tunes and later, family members played a key role in the famous Gaither Homecoming Series. The group had humble beginnings when G.T. Speer and his wife Lena started singing with their sister and brother-in-law throughout the southern states for churches, revivals and singing schools. G.T. and Lena had four children, each of whom eventually joined the group.
The youngest surviving sibling is Ben, now age 80, who is coming to central Illinois to perform with Allison Durham Speer, the daughter-in-law of his late brother Brock.
The Speers will join Shawn Degenhart and the Gospelfest Singers and Choir for this extraordinary concert. The Gospelfest Singers are a small group of approximately eight singers from the Peoria area who join their talents to create dynamic Southern Gospel concerts several times every year. They will be supported by the Gospelfest Choir which consists of close to 60 singers from a variety of denominations throughout central Illinois.
During their long career, the Speer Family toured around the globe keeping a rigorous touring schedule while also hosting numerous radio and television shows. G.T. Speer was a prolific songwriter who is credited with writing over 800 southern gospel convention songs and the Summertime Gospelfest concert will feature many of these classics including “Heaven’s Jubilee,” “O the Glory Did Roll,” “I Shall Never Forget the Day” and “Sweeter Each Day.”
As the decades passed, non-family members were eventually added to the singing group and many of those members went on to have successful careers in Southern Gospel music in their own right. It was not until 1998 that the Speer family retired from touring, but the musical mission of this talented family continues.
Ben Speer has been the music director for the famous Gaither Homecoming videos since they began in the early nineties. The Gaither Homecoming is a series of videos and concerts led by the legendary Bill Gaither who gathered well-known artists with celebrated careers in Southern Gospel music along with younger, aspiring artists he was mentoring. The video of that initial concert was wildly popular and spawned more concerts, videos, television programs and more recently, performances on cruise ships. Ben Speer plays an instrumental role in the project and continues his participation with Gaither even today.
Allison Durham Speer has had an impressive career in her own right as a soloist for the past 25 years. She has toured with the Gaither Homecoming and been featured on their videos as well. Durham Speer is also a teacher of performance training and how to build a successful music ministry.
Currently, Ben is active as the director of the Stamps-Baxter School of Music which is held every summer in Nashville, Tennessee. Shawn Degenhart works with him regularly as a member of the faculty since 2004. So it was not surprising when Degenhart published a songbook in 2008 of the songs of G.T. Speer which included photos and remembrances provided by the surviving members of the Speer Family.
The Summertime Gospelfest concert will celebrate the wonderful legacy of the Speer Family with songs and tales of the early days of this ground-breaking musical group. The concert is sponsored by Hoerr’s Berean Bookstores.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Children 10 and under are free. There are special group rates: $12 per ticket for a group of 10 to 24 people and $10 for groups of 25 or more. Tickets can be purchased at Hoerr’s Berean Bookstores, Five Points Washington, the office at Grace Church in Morton or online at www.gospelfestradio.com.
For more information, call Shawn at 309-472-0027.