Named "Quarterfinalist" for the International Grammy Association's, Music Educator Award, 2014, Silvester Carl Henderson is a nationally recognized Professor, educator, conference motivational speaker, business owner, respected real estate investor, community artistic organizer, musician/artist, internet radio blog personality and conductor of the Gospel Song. Professor Henderson earned his Bachelor of Music and his Master of Arts Degrees from San Francisco State University. He taught there from 1984 to 1994 as a Professor/ Lecturer of Piano and Music Theory. Mr. Henderson is an Emeritus Lecturer/Professor of African American Studies and Music, from the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as the original director of the internationally acclaimed, Young Inspiration Gospel Choir from 1985 – 2005. YIGC’s first recorded live album entitled the “Gospel Experience”, is placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute’s Gospel Music Division. They named YIGC the "finest" university gospel choir in the nation. Most recently, Professor Henderson was appointed “President” of the “Faculty Senate Coordinating Council” (District Senate), for Contra Costa Community College District. He is also President of the “Academic Senate”, for Los Medanos College. As a seasoned Full-Time Tenure Professor of Choral/Vocal Activities and Emeritus Chair of the Music Department at the Los Medanos College, Professor Henderson was recently appointed Lecturer/Professor of Choral/Vocal Activities, for the College of Alameda. Mr. Henderson is also the Minister/Director of Music, for over thirty-six years, at the Bay Area’s prominent Palma Ceia Baptist Church, located in Hayward, CA. Over the course of thirty plus years, Professor Henderson has been the recipient of many national and international prestigious educational, political, religious and community awards and honors. Professor Henderson is the recipient of the “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Community Award”, from Dow Chemical, and he was recently presented with the “Art Recognition Award”, from the Contra Costa County Arts and Culture Commission. The noted Huffington Post, titles Professor Henderson a “Gospel Impresario and Social Activist in Public Education”. Professor Silvester Carl Henderson educational objective is to ensure a permanent academic home for African American Music, within Higher Education. He resides in Pleasanton, California with his wife Cecile and is the father of three daughters named Carlena, Celisse and Charde.
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