VOICE AVENUE — Voice Avenue is composed of, from left, Chad Madden, Lauren Ramkissoon, Jermaine Purifory, Garland Phillips, Candace Whittington, Paul Tosch, Amanda Addinall and Bryan Sanders. They recently performed in Cleveland for the Tennessee Junior Miss program. Banner photo, LINDA STARCHER
Cleveland-based Voice Avenue will be singing on TBN’s “Praise the Lord” on Tuesday at 10 p.m.
Voice Avenue includes eight of the Voices of Lee participants and Jermaine Purifory from season nine of “American Idol.”
Group member Paul Tosch, acting as spokesman for the group, said this will really be the group’s debut.
“Hopefully it will give us more opportunities,” Tosch said, commenting that it was a great way for group members to promote the new name.
Tosch also said it is a great way to tell people who they are and where they can be reached.
This is just one of the exciting opportunities that the group has. Later this month, Voice Avenue will be recording a demo in Nashville. Tosch said the group is also making plans to do a fall and Christmas tour. For the fall tour the group is planning to sing at different universities that have a cappella performances throughout the country.
“In this stage we want to do what God has (planned) for it,” Tosch said. He was not sure where this would lead.
While competing on “The Sing Off” on NBC, the group began to seriously discuss continuing to sing together after the show. When the Voices of Lee team was chosen for “The Sing Off” there were only two members that were a part of the current Voices of Lee; the others were alumni.
When the group returned to Cleveland, many found it hard to readjust to school and work.
“We all left lives and they were still there even though we felt different,” Tosch said.
Despite gaining popularity under the name Voices of Lee, the group had to choose another name.
“We knew if we wanted to continue singing as a group we couldn’t use the name Voices of Lee,” Tosch said. Lee University’s Voices of Lee continue singing.
The singers wanted to keep the word “voices” or “voice” in their group’s name because that’s how everyone had come to know them. Tosch said they probably threw out hundreds of names before deciding. The winning name was finally suggested one day while the group was eating together.
One member looked out the window during a discussion and saw a street sign with the word “avenue” on it. He suggested then suggested Voice Avenue.
Tosch said his favorite thing about Voice Avenue is the relationships.
“Everyone (in the group) would say that ... we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t have each other,” Tosch said.
Although members are from all over the United States, all of the members except for one now live in Cleveland. Five members of Voice Avenue are still attending Lee either as graduates or undergraduates.
The group is currently accepting invitations to sing through their website www.voiceave.com.
