Multi-genre recording artist Damien Sneed presents a diverse lineup of choirs and choral groups on his 40+-city North American tour, “We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” The 2020 tour is presented by IMG Artists, today’s leading global performing arts management agency and kicked off on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and Joe’s Pub in New York, NY, and will make stops at concert halls and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The tour will conclude on Friday, March 13, 2020, at Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center in Kent, WA. To view footage from last year’s tour, click HERE.The “We Shall Overcome” tour features a group of intergenerational singers including church, community, college, high school, and children choirs and choral groups, ensembles, chambers singers, and a variety of professional singers, who will join Sneed to perform two songs, along with Sneed’s group of multi-genre vocalists and instrumentalists, including Chenee Campbell (vocalist), Anitra McKinney (vocalist), Alicia Peters-Jordan (vocalist), Matia Washington (vocalist), Linny Smith (vocalist), Joel Tate (drums), Arthur Sutton (bass), and Marquéz Cassidy (keyboards).
“I got my start as a music director and conductor working with choirs from my church, the Good Shepherd Baptist Church, and at my performing arts high school, Davidson Fine Arts School, both in Augusta, GA,” says the Sphinx Medal Excellence recipient. “It’s significant to have choral groups accompany us on the majority of the tour because it represents the construct of community which is very much a part of the message that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood for.”
In January, both groups will be featured on the following tour dates, which kicked off with the students from the Cicely Tyson School for the Performing and Visual Arts in East Orange, NY, and The Arts High School in Newark NJ at NJPAC. Other guest choirs and choral groups will include the St. Thomas Gospel Choir and the New Spirit of Penn at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, PA (Friday, January 17); and a Community Choir [of Keene, NH) at the Colonial Theatre in Keene, NH (Saturday, January 18); the New Bethel Community Church Choir at Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady, NY (Sunday, January 19); and the South Coast Children’s Choir at the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford, MA (Monday, January 20); the Burlington Ecumenical Gospel Choir at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT (Wednesday, January 22); the Millersville University Gospel Choir (pre-show only) and the McCaskey High Gospel Choir (main show) at Millersville University in Lancaster, PA (Friday, January 24); the Gettysburg College Sunderman Conservatory Choir at Gettysburg College at the Majestic Theater Gettysburg, PA (Saturday, January 25); the Community Choir, which include a combined group of UMass students and local professional singers from the Amherst area at the Fine Arts Center at University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Amherst, MA (Tuesday, January 28); the Howard University Choir at the Alden Theatre at McLean Community Center in McLean, VA (Thursday, January 30); and the Hampton University Concert Choir at the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, VA (Friday, January 31).
During Black History Month, the “We Shall Overcome” tour will continue with Evolution Healing Arts Choir at The Wilson Center at Cape Fear College in Wilmington, NC (Saturday, February 1); the Penn-Griffin School for the Arts Choir at the High Point Theatre in High Point, NC (Tuesday, February 4); the Prairie View A&M University Choir and the Voices of Praise Choir at Texas A&M University Auditorium in College Station, TX (Friday, February 7); the Nimitz High School Chamber Singers at Irving Arts Center in Irving, TX (Saturday, February 8); and the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Choir at the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, TX (Sunday, February 9); the Community Choir (Miami) at the Miami University of Ohio Hall Auditorium in Oxford, OH (Wednesday, February 12); the Harmony, Hope, & Healing Choir at the Dominican University at Lund Auditorium in River Forest, IL (Saturday, February 15); the Community Choir (Palos Hills) at the Moraine Valley Community College at the Fine and Performing Arts Center in Palos Hills, IL (Sunday, February 16); the University of Dubuque Choir at the University of Dubuque at the Heritage Center in Dubuque, IA (Tuesday, February 18); the Jeremy Winston Chorale at the Victoria Theatre Association in Dayton, OH (Wednesday, February 19); the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir at the University of California Berkeley in Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA (Thursday, February 20); the Chico Gospel Choir at Chico Performances at Laxson Auditorium at California State University in Chico, CA (Saturday, February 22); the Warner Pacific Choir and the Imago Dei Gospel Choir at Portland’5 Center for the Arts in the Newmark Theatre in Portland, OR (Monday, February 24); the Calgary Gospel Choir at Arts Commons in Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, AB (Thursday, February 27); and the Universal Gospel Choir at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, BC (Saturday, February 29).
The final leg of the tour concludes with a series of dates during Women’s History Month starting with the American Fork High School Choir at Brigham Young University’s Harris Fine Arts Center in Provo, UT (Tuesday, March 3); the Calvary Baptist Choir at the University of Utah at Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, UT (Wednesday, March 4); the Xavier Charter School Eclatant Show Choir at the College of Southern Idaho Fine Arts Center at Twin Falls, ID (Wednesday, March 11); and Central Oregon Mastersingers with vocalists from Bend High School at the Tower Theatre in Bend, OR (Thursday, March 12); and the Kent-Meridian High School Choir at the Kent Meridian Performing Arts Center in Kent, WA (Friday, March 13).
Additional groups will be announced for the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT (Thursday, January 23); the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts in Clinton Charter Township, MI (Thursday, February 13); the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, CA (Friday, February 21); the Admiral Theatre in Bremerton, WA (Sunday, March 1); Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, CA (Saturday, March 7); and Pepperdine University at Smothers Theatre in Malibu, CA (Sunday, March 8). There are no choirs or choral groups scheduled for Place des Arts in Montreal, QC (Thursday, January 16); Temple Theater in Lufkin, TX (Thursday, February 6); and the Wharton Center in East Lansing, MI (Friday, February 14).
Sneed released his double-disc deluxe edition of Damien Sneed: We Shall Overcome on Friday, January 10, 2020, on his LeChateau Earl Records. In September 2019, he released his new offering, Jazz In Manhattan. Previous recordings included Damien Sneed: We Shall Overcome (January 2019), The Three Sides of Damien Sneed: Classical, Jazz and Sanctified Soul (July 2018), Broken To Minister: The Deluxe Edition (March 2015), Spiritual Sketches (June 2013), and Introspections LIVE (January 2010).
