Damien Sneed poses for a portrait back stage at Carnegie Hall on April 27th, 2015.
Michael Rubenstein
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IMG Artists, today’s leading global performing arts management agency, announces a 36-city North American tour with multi-genre recording artist Damien Sneed. The Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient will bring his brand of classical, jazz, and gospel music to “We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., featuring Damien Sneed.” The tour will kick off on Friday, January 11, 2019, at the Empire Center at The Egg in Albany, NY, and will make stops at concert halls and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The tour will conclude on March 3 at the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA.
“We are thrilled to be working with Damien Sneed,” says Toby Tumarkin, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Artists and Attractions. “He is an amazing rising star, and ‘We Shall Overcome’ is a great opportunity for audiences across the country to experience Damien’s incredible music making.”
Next year [2019] marks the 35th Anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which was signed into law and made a federal holiday in 1983. The “We Shall Overcome” tour will continue through Black History Month and the early part of Women’s History Month.
Sneed notes, “I look forward to honoring the life and legacy of the great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., in my upcoming tour as well as many other great artists and public figures who used their voices and their art to let the world know that one day we will truly overcome.”
Joining Sneed on the two-month tour will be an ensemble of multi-genre vocalists and instrumentalists, including Chenee Campbell (vocalist), Markita Knight (vocalist), Ayana George (vocalist), Anitra McKinney (vocalist), and Quinn Brown (vocalist), along with special guests, classical recording artists Patrice Eaton, Audrey DuBois Harris, and Brandie Sutton, who will appear on various dates of the tour. The musicians include Mark Clark (drums), John Matthew Clark (bass), and Marquéz Cassidy (keyboards).
Sneed recently joined the acclaimed staff of the Houston Grand Opera (HGOco) as Music Director and Composer in Residence and serves as cover conductor for HGO mainstage productions under Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director. He has been commissioned to compose a new opera for Houston Grand Opera that will have its world premiere in early March 2020 at the Cullen Theater.
Damien Sneed is a pianist, organist, conductor, composer, producer, arranger, vocal coach, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has worked with classical, jazz, pop and R&B legends including the late Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis, Jessye Norman, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, Lawrence Brownlee, and many others. A graduate of John S. Davidson Fine Arts School in his hometown of Augusta, Ga., he earned a Bachelor of Music – Piano Performance from Howard University and a Master of Music in Music Technology: Scoring for Film and Multimedia from New York University. Sneed will also graduate with his doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from USC in fall 2018. He is the founder and artistic director of the international vocal ensemble Chorale Le Chateau, and the founder of LeChateau Earl Records.
