A Nashville choral and orchestral work rooted in Black spirituals has won a 2026 Daytime Emmy. "Requiem for Colour: A Journey through Lament and Joy" is listed as the winner of Outstanding Regional Content in a Daytime Genre. The 53rd Daytime Emmy Awards took place Oct. 30 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
Belmont University professor Dr. Jeffery L. Ames composed and conducted the work. It begins by celebrating West African culture, then moves through the Atlantic crossing, slavery in the South, the Great Migration and the civil rights era. It adapts the form of the Requiem Mass. Ames has said Negro spirituals are its foundation.
The work earned three MidSouth Emmy Awards at a Feb. 14 ceremony at Belmont's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Ames also conducted it in London in summer 2025. A PBS special of the work is available to stream.
Belmont describes its mission as Christ-centered, and this year it gave Ames its Christian Scholarship Award. The title points to the thread running through many spirituals and psalms, where lament and joy sit side by side.
"The Kelly Clarkson Show" led all nominees with five wins.
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