Charlotte Children’s Choir at Community School of the Arts has been enjoying a partnership with accomplished pianist, conductor, composer and arranger Damien Sneed, who has been instructing the 56 students in five high-impact educational rehearsals that began in March. On Saturday, May 9th, 2015, at 7:00 p.m., Sneed and the choir will present a free concert at First Baptist Church West, 1801 Oaklawn Avenue. Although the concert is free, you need to reserve tickets online in advance or by calling 704-372-1000.
Some information about the concert:
It will feature songs and stories of “Faces and Places” around the world. This partnership is made possible with support from the Knight Foundation. Through folksongs, jazz, classical repertoire, spirituals, hymns, and contemporary arrangements, the singers will take you on a musical journey. The central piece of the concert, “It’s Freedom” from Duke Ellington’s Sacred Suite, will be an exciting collaboration between Damien Sneed and the singers of the Charlotte Children’s Choir. Our musical journey will end with “Everyone Has a Place” from Wynton Marsalis’s Abyssinian Mass.
And some information about Damien Sneed:
Damien Sneed is a multi-genre recording artist and a rising star that is widely admired for his range of musical talents and his extraordinary achievements in entertainment. Born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Sneed was a musical prodigy who was playing the piano at three years old. He is a pianist, organist, conductor, composer, producer, arranger, vocal coach, professor and arts educator. A 2014 recipient of the prestigious Sphinx Medal of Excellence, which is presented annually to emerging Black and Latino leaders in classical music, Sneed has collaborated with a wide range of talent from various musical genres including Wynton Marsalis, Jessye Norman, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Carlos Santana, Ashford & Simpson, David Sanborn, Kenny Burrell, among many others. Sneed is currently an adjunct faculty member of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and he is a professor at Nyack’s Christian College in New York City. His other professional affiliations have included The Juilliard School as a staff accompanist, Jazz at Lincoln Center as an artistic consultant, the City University of New York (CUNY) as a professor of music, New Brunswick Theological Seminary as an instructor, The Boys Choir of Harlem as an accompanist, the Martina Arroyo Foundation as an artistic consultant, and Yamaha as an endorsed Influential Artist.
In 2013, Sneed brought his 80-member Chorale le Chateau to Charlotte to be part of Wynton Marsalis’ Abyssinian Mass at Friendship Baptist Church, along with Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra. Filmmakers Dennis Scholl of the Knight Foundation and Marlon Johnson followed both Marsalis and Sneed in their journey around this performance a and produced a documentary, “Everyone Has a Place,” which premiered in WTVI PBS Charlotte in February.
Charlotte on the Cheap is a member of 
