Multi-Genre Recording Artist Damien Sneed Makes His Carnegie Hall Conducting Debut
buzzz worthy. . .
Multi-genre recording artist and Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient
Damien Sneed makes his Carnegie Hall conducting debut for Wynton Marsalis’ “Abyssinian 200: A Celebration” on the legendary
Ronald O. Perelman Stage on Sunday, April 26. The new offering features WorldStrides’ Heritage Performance National
Jazz Choir accompanied by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra.
Participants were selected through a formal application process and invited to
experience an opportunity of a lifetime.
Over the
years, Marsalis has been a mentor and champion for Sneed’s varied music
endeavors. He has worked with Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
since his conducting debut at Jazz at Lincoln Center in April 2008.
Sneed and Marsalis also star in the new PBS documentary, Everyone Has a Place
by Dennis Scholl of the Knight Foundation and Marlon
Johnson, a six-time Emmy award-winning producer and director. The
film captures their musical journey of last year’s historic performance of the
Abyssinian Mass, composed by Marsalis and conducted by Sneed. The documentary
was filmed at Charlotte’s Friendship Missionary Baptist Church during the
16-city national tour. Everyone Has a Place features the world-renowned
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Sneed’s 70-piece
Chorale LeChateau.
Tonight, April 23, Sneed will perform in a multi-media concert of music
and spoken word titled: “Migration Rhapsody: An Aleatoric Exploration of the
Journey North through Music, Poetry, and Personal Narrative at the Museum of
Modern Art (MoMA), in conjunction with the Jacob Lawrence “MIGRATION SERIES.”
The concert is directed and produced by Terrance McKnight and written by
McKnight and Karen Chilton. The concert also features Chilton (narrator), James
Davis, Jr. (piano), Nick Finzer (trombone), Ernesto Gomez (harmonica); Ricky
Gordon (percussion); Alicia Hall Moran (vocals), Randall Haywood (trumpet), Bill
T. Jones (narrator); Joseph Joubert (piano), Kevin Maynor (vocals), Jason Moran
(piano), Nicole Phifer (vocals), Bill Sims, Jr. (guitars), Chaney Sims (vocals),
Bob Stewart (tuba); Curtis Stewart (violin); Tuffus Zimbabwe (piano) and The
Levites featuring Quinn Brown, Chenee Campbell, Lynette Rhett McNeil, Tiffany
Stevenson and Matia Washington.
In between Sneed’s two professorships at the Clive Davis Institute of
Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Nyack’s
Christian College, and the promotions of his new double disc project, Broken To Minister: The Deluxe
Edition, Sneed completed a very successful 15-city Broken to Minister Promotional
tour and a series of special events including appearances surrounding the
30th Anniversary of the
Stellar Gospel Music Awards in Las Vegas; Spiritual Sketches In Recital
with Lawrence Brownlee in Youngstown, OH and more!
