'A Soulful Music Celebration' Returns to City College Center for the Arts

NEW YORK (March 14, 2019)— A moving voyage through the sounds of the Black American experience returns to Aaron Davis Hall as City College Center for the Arts (CCCA) presents “A Soulful Music Celebration” on Saturday, April 6, at 3 p.m. The event, featuring Marvin Lowe and Friends and narrated by Obie-award winning actress Barbara Montgomery 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, “A Soulful Music Celebration” was an immense hit with audiences when it was performed at Aaron Davis Hall in 2018. Now back by popular demand, the show takes music lovers even further back in time with performances showcasing the African drum, the rhythmic beat that gave much of Black American music its lifeblood. Under the musical direction of Anthony Evans, acclaimed bass-baritone Marvin Lowe along with singers Brandi Sutton, Lucia Bradford, Samuel McKelton, La Frederick Coaxner and Voices from Harlem 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.”

Offering audiences historical background and context for songs during the concert will be the show’s narrator Montgomery, a celebrated actress of stage and film, best-known as a star of the hit television series Amen. 

“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 concert organizer and performer Lowe. “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 “A Soulful Music Celebration” are $40 general admission and $25 for students and seniors.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.citycollegecenterforthearts.org or in person at the Aaron Davis Hall box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. For full details, visit the CCCA website 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 West 135th Street and Convent Avenue (129 Convent Avenue). City College Center for the Arts can be followed on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @ccnyarts.

About The Artists:

Marvin Lowe is native of Philadelphia who has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He has performed with the New York City Opera, Washington Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Ebony and Virginia Opera. On the concert stage his credits include solo performances with the National Cathedral Choral Society and a performance in Abyssinian 200: A Celebration at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis. In addition to classical and theatrical performances, his television and film credits include Live from Lincoln Center as well as appearances in Boomerang starring Eddie Murphy and Spike Lee’s Malcolm X.

Barbara Montgomery began her career in the Off-Off Broadway Movement of the mid 1960s at Café La Mama and the Negro Ensemble Company. She then went on to the Broadway stage in productions of Raisin, The First Breeze of Summer, The Tap Dance Kid and My Sister, My Sister. A recipient of several AUDELCO Awards, Montgomery also received an OBIE Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of My Sister, My Sister. On the television screen, Montgomery has delighted audiences with her roles as Casietta Hetebrink on the sitcom Amen, Mrs. Conley in Disney’s made for television musical film Polly, and as Miss Eva Turner on The Women of Brewster Place, among many other credits.  As a producer and director, she helmed the film Mitote starring Ruby Dee, S. Epatha Merkerson and Sharon Hope. Montgomery is currently in pre-production on the documentary, Homeless in New York, made to bring awareness to the homelessness epidemic in New York City and help eliminate it.  

About the City College Center for the Arts: 
The City College Center for the Arts hosts an ambitious, year-round calendar of student and professional performances. The mission of the City College Center for the Arts is to provide a creative arts center and focal point for the City College of New York, building a sense of community within the College, elevating the profile of Aaron Davis Hall in the greater New York area, and connecting the College to the surrounding community through the arts.

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