NEW YORK — A moving voyage through the sounds of the Black American experience returns to Aaron Davis Hall as City College Center for the Arts (CCCA) and Marvin Lowe present JOURNEY: A Soulful Music Celebration on Friday, October 11, at 7 p.m. The concert, featuring acclaimed bass-baritone soloist Marvin Lowe and friends — including jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, soprano Brandie Sutton and vocalist Marcelle Davies-Lashley — will take audiences on a journey through the music created by Africans and African-Americans in response to their trials and triumphs over the centuries. The soulful trek also seeks to inspire contemporary listeners to use their own voices to create change and help unite all people in these trying times.
A musical tour de force featuring genres spanning from Negro spirituals and religious hymns to the modern sounds of gospel, blues and jazz, JOURNEY: A Soulful Music Celebration was an immense hit with audiences when it was performed at Aaron Davis Hall in 2018 and 2019. Now back by popular demand, the show takes music lovers even further back in time with performances showcasing the African drum and dance, centering the rhythmic beat that gave much of Black American music its lifeblood. Under the musical direction of Vinroy D. Brown, Jr., Lowe along with an array of talented performers, including vocalist C. Anthony Bryant, Davies-Lashley and Sutton, will offer new takes on songs such as “Lord, How Come Me Here,” “Hold on Just a Little While Longer” and Ragtime’s “Make Them Hear You.” Obediah Wright will serve as choreographer for the concert.
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Offering audiences historical background and context for songs during the concert will be the show’s narrator, the Rev. Dr. S. Raschaad Hoggard.
“I created this concert to help bring this musical history to center stage and to also show that we are all connected through music and love,” said Lowe, who organized the concert. “There is so much division and injustice in our world right now. It is my hope that each person leaves the concert reminded that their voice must be used and be heard. No one can afford to sit silently anymore.”
Tickets for JOURNEY: A Soulful Music Celebration are $35 general admission and $25 for students and seniors and can be purchased online at www.citycollegecenterforthearts.org or in person at the Aaron Davis Hall box office weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except on Wednesday when the box office is closed. For full details, visit the CCCA website at www.citycollegecenterforthearts.org or call the Aaron Davis Hall box office at (212) 650-6900.
Aaron Davis Hall is located on the campus of the City College of New York, at 129 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street. Follow City College Center for the Arts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @ccnyarts.
