For Gloria Ladson-Billings, culturally relevant pedagogy is characterized by three criteria: academic success, cultural competence and critical consciousness. Those engaged in culturally relevant pedagogy are connected by how they see themselves as teachers and how they see their students, how they view knowledge and how they structure social relations in their classroom. These threads are all evident in the University of Illinois' Black Chorus practice. This article shows how conductor Dr. Ollie Watts Davis' culturally relevant practices with the choir generate and sustain a unique community with strong social bonds that in turn create and reinforce musical excellence, inspiring the singers to do better, live better and sing better while embracing their African American cultural heritage and identity.