PLATTSBURGH -- When Michelle Nobel-Coursey was asked to help organize a campus gospel choir at Plattsburgh State, she never imagined it would become a kind of college institution.

That first year, the choir had just five or six members; now, 17 years later, it has close to 60 voices, with about 10 instrumentalists.

Students earn credit for participating.

"We have an office," said Music Adviser Sally Urban. "We've had a consistent audience base -- we've filled Giltz (Auditorium) the last couple Christmas concerts."

"It's like watching your baby grow up," said Nobel-Coursey, who graduated in 1994 and is now a school reading specialist in Massachusetts.

Saturday, she returns to co-emcee the 15th-annual Plattsburgh State Gospelfest, a performance of contemporary and traditional gospel music kicked off by the smaller Praise and Worship Team singers and featuring the Gospel Choir, with dance by the Step Team and the Praise Dancers. And the special guest group will be the first-ever Plattsburgh State Alumni Choir.

That group will include at least 35 past members of the Gospel Choir who will sing two selections then join the present membership in the concert finale. As well, many alumni will join the Gospel Choir as soloists throughout the concert.

HONORED ALUMNI

Seeds for the Alumni Choir were sowed several months ago.

"Last fall, during Homecoming weekend, we (the choir) sang that Sunday morning," Urban said. "We always have a lot of alumni in the audience.

"We had a couple of them join us for the last song we sang -- we pulled them up there," she laughed.

One of those was Nobel-Coursey, who heard the choir again in January at the Flynn Theater in Burlington.

"I think that they were phenomenal," she said.

As Urban and others planned the upcoming event, they decided they'd honor the alumni in different ways, including using the black and purple colors worn at the very first Gospelfest.

At some point, the idea of honoring those past members morphed into including them.