Biography

Charrise Barron is a scholar of black popular music and African American Christian history and culture, as well as a speaker and artist. Dr. Barron is Assistant Professor of Music at Harvard University, as well as a 2022-2023 Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music. She has also taught at Brown University, Yale University, and Colorado College. Dr. Barron holds a PhD in African and African American Studies, with a secondary field of study in ethnomusicology from Harvard University, and a Master of Divinity summa cum laude from Yale Divinity School. She is a Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) Doctoral Fellowship alumna, and a member of the Harvard University Society of Horizons Scholars.

While her research, writing, and presentations have explored a range of topics in African American music, religion, and culture, Charrise Barron’s current book project, The Platinum Age of Gospel, centers on contemporary gospel music and illuminates the marked shifts away from previous eras of gospel performance and culture which have defined the last thirty years of the genre. She is an experienced gospel keyboardist and singer who has served in music ministry at churches throughout the United States and abroad, including at several churches in Houston and at Willesden New Testament Church of God in London, England. She has composed for Brown University’s famed Rites and Reason Theatre, one of the oldest continuously producing Black theatres in the nation. Most recently, she composed the music for the play The Lawsons: A Civil Rights Love Story, which premiered at the Houston Ensemble Theatre, Houston’s oldest black theatre.

Crossroads Arts Fellow Project

The Lawsons: The Soundtrack to a Civil Rights Love Story

This project records the soundtrack for the play The Lawsons: A Civil Rights Love Story, which premiered at the Ensemble Theatre, the oldest Black theatre in Houston, Texas. The play narrates the lives of Rev. William “Bill” Lawson and his wife Audrey Lawson. Theirs is a story of deep Christian faith which fueled their abiding love, remarkable romance, and world-shaping activism. The couple worked together to found the historic Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, in Houston, Texas, and Bill Lawson was instrumental in integrating the city of Houston during the civil rights era. Barron composed the original music and lyrics for the play, which encompasses gospel and rhythm and blues. As a Crossroads Arts Fellow, Barron brings the music of the play to life through studio production of the soundtrack.