Total Experience Gospel Choir

The Total Experience Gospel Choir is a gospel music group based in Seattle, Washington, United States, founded in 1973 by Patrinell "Pat" Wright, who continues to lead the group as of 2016. They have sung in at least 38 states and 22 countries, have performed for United States presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and made at least seven recordings of their own, as well as singing behind Barry Manilow at KeyArena in 2015, and on the song "Save Me" on Dave Matthews's CD Some Devil. They have appeared in television commercials ("to pay our bills") and on the public radio program A Prairie Home Companion as well as numerous other radio programs.

Wright was born in Carthage, Texas. Her father was a Baptist preacher and her mother a schoolteacher. she sang her first solo at the age of 3, and by her 14th birthday, was directing two choirs in her father's church. She graduated as valedictorian from Turner High School in Carthage, Prairie View A&M University in Hempstead, Texas and moved in 1964 to Seattle. She has had an extensive musical career in her own right, and since 1997 has been pastor of the Oneness Christian Center in Seattle, which she co-founded.

Wright began the group in 1973 as a gospel music class at Seattle's public Franklin High School. Many lives have been touched, voices lifted in praise, children mentored and at times adopted, and decades passed. For a photo essay see the Total Experience Gospel Choir Facebook Page or on the website www.totalexperiencegospelchoir.org Photo Gallery. [3]

Pastor Wright has earned the nickname "The Idol Breeder" and has become once again uniquely distinguished after three of her choir members became finalists on the television series American Idol. Among its former members are American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar in 2007, 2004 contestant Leah LaBelle Vladowski, and 2002 contestant Karma Johnson [4].

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