Festival of African-American Music Concert

Berea’s Black Music Ensemble Hosts the Festival of African-American Music, Feb. 23 & 24

Berea College’s Black Music Ensemble, directed by Dr. Kathy Bullock, celebrates its second annual Festival of African-American Music which highlights selected African-American composers and features musicians/composers Diane L. White-Clayton and Raymond Wise. The festival will be held at Presser Music Hall on the Berea College campus on Feb. 23 and at Union Church on Feb. 24, 2013.

Saturday’s activities will… Show more consist of presentations, demonstrations and performances by various African-American composers. Registration is $15 for individuals, $45 for groups of 15-25 people and $60 for a group over 25 people. There will also be an afternoon choral session, conducted by guest artist Diane White-Clayton and Raymond Wise, that is open to all festival participants. The festival will conclude Sunday, Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. with a concert consisting of various performers and groups, including the festival choir, led by White-Clayton. This concert will be free and open to the public.

Diane White-Clayton, the artist-in-residence for the festival, is a well-sought-after vocalist, pianist, composer, conductor, lecturer and a dynamic preacher/teacher. Originally from Washington, D.C., she received her doctorate and Master’s degrees from the University of California. She travels extensively throughout the United States and abroad as a workshop clinician, speaker and performer of gospel and classical music. As an ambassador of goodwill, she studied on a Rotary Scholarship in Paris, France. She has held numerous university and church positions, and is married to celebrated percussionist Joe Clayton Sr. She is on the staff at the Faithful Central Bible Church and part-time faculty at Loyola Marymount University.

“Dr. Dee” has two self-produced recordings of original works and has been featured as conductor and performer of her compositions at such venues as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, John F. Kennedy Center, and the Air Canada Center in Toronto where she conducted an 800-voice choir.

Raymond Wise serves as director of the African-American Choral Ensemble at Indiana University-Bloomington. Wise attended Denison University where he earned an undergraduate degree in music, and later earned a Master’s and doctorate degrees from The Ohio State University. Wise has served as a church musician for more than 30 years and has appeared on radio and television, recorded 22 albums, performed with opera singers, orchestras, dance companies, professional recording groups, and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, as a singer, dancer, pianist, composer, choral director, lecturer, and teacher. Wise has penned more than 600 compositions and his Anthology of 21 Spirituals for the 21st Century has received national and international acclaim.

Other guest clinicians include Dr. Alicestyne Turley, director of Berea’s Carter G. Woodson Center, Dr. Angela Hammond, Musicology Professor, and Berea alumni Emmanuel J. Stokes and Raynetta Wiggins. The Sunday culminating concert will also feature Berea music department faculty (Steve Bolster, Mark Calkins, Liza DiSavino, Kathy Bullock, Tripp Bratton, David Hummel), ensembles, as well as the West Jessamine High School chorus, and soloists from the University of Kentucky opera.

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