Magnoliafest: A Juneteenth Black Music Appreciation Month Celebration
Join us on June 19 and 27 for Magnoliafest, an arts-filled Black Music Appreciation Month celebration in honor of Juneteenth. These events are designed to recognize the significance of the Juneteenth celebration in Black history and to pay tribute to Dr. A. Grace Lee Mims, one of the founders of the Black History Archives Project (now the African American Archives Auxiliary of the Western Reserve Historical Society), host of WCLV’s “The Black Arts” radio program for more than 40 years, and a long-time faculty member at The Music Settlement (TMS) on Magnolia Drive in University Circle. This program series is presented with support from the Center for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (The RASHAD Center, Inc.), Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the Music Settlement, and the Western Reserve Historical Society.
June 19 Schedule of Events
Daniel Spearman, Pianist
Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum Rotunda
Cleveland History Center, 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Saturday, June 19, 2021, Noon-12:45 PM
Free with Museum Admission
*This RASHAD Center, Inc. program is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Daniel Spearman is a Trumpeter, Pianist, Composer and educator from Camden, New Jersey. Beginning at the age of 5 Daniel was captivated by music, first playing the piano then picking up the trumpet in high school. Daniel graduated with highest honors from the Oberlin College and Conservatory of music with degrees in Africana Studies and Jazz Piano and has studied under the likes of Dan Wall, Sean Jones, Eddie Henderson and Sullivan Fortner. Artists that Daniel has worked with include, the Robin Eubanks Big Band, Sam Blakeslee Large Ensemble, The Jazz Heritage Orchestra, Curtis Taylor, the Four Tops, Eric Nolan, Angie Stone, and Justin Lee-Schultz. He is an active member of the Northeast Ohio music scene performing regularly at venues like Blu Jazz+ and the Bop Stop. Currently he serves as Trumpeter and horn arranger for Funkyard X a band based out of Cleveland, and Minister of Music for Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Oberlin.
In addition to performing Daniel is a dedicated educator, with over 10 years of musical teaching experience. He also has a passion for helping his community and as such has helped found and serves as Artistic Director for, the Greater Expectations Ministries (GEMS) music project in Lorain OH, that provides free music lessons to local youth. He also works with the East Cleveland Community Arts & Mentorship Program (ECCAMP) that teaches music and provides mentorship for youth in East Cleveland. In addition Daniel provides instruction on piano through the Aurora School of Music in Aurora, OH as well as maintaining an independent trumpet studio.
The Passione Quartet
Darnell McMullen II (violin)
Devin Chapman (violin) Raymond Parker (viola)
Camari Dodson-Poindexter (cello)
(Cleveland School of the Arts Students)
The Music Settlement, 11125 Magnolia Dr., Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 2-2:45 PM
Free Admission
*This RASHAD Center, Inc. program is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
The Passione Quartet is comprised of Darnell McMullen, Raymond Parker, Camari Dodson-Poindexter, and Devin Chapman. The quartet began their music careers at the Cleveland School of the Arts under the guidance of Ms. Dianna Richardson. In 2018, the four young musicians began taking master classes with the “completely engrossing powerful and elegant” Cavani String Quartet at the Music Settlement’s Chamber Music Intensive in Cleveland, Ohio. The Passione Quartet has performed works from Chevalier de Saint-Georges, David Stone, Dmitri Shostakovich, and quartet member Camari-Dodson-Poindexter. The quartet has performed at venues such as Glick Recital Hall, Van Aken District, Cleveland Metropolitan School District Teacher’s Appreciation events. The Quartet was invited to enrich their musical studies and performance in Switzerland through Caroga Arts, an opportunity foiled by the 2020 global pandemic. Darnell McMullen, Raymond Parker, and Camari Dodson-Poindexter will be continuing their music education in Music Education, Music Production, and Music Performance and Physics, respectively at Ohio University in Fall of 2021. They leave behind the legacy of the Passione Quartet to Rising Senior Devin Chapman, in hopes of playing together as a quartet at Ohio University in the fall of 2022.
Helen Turner-Thompson, Mark Thompson, and the Helen Turner-Thompson Gospel Music Ensemble
Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum Rotunda
Cleveland History Center, 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 3-3:45 PM
Free with Museum Admission
*This RASHAD Center, Inc. program is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Helen Turner-Thompson is an award-winning gospel pianist, vocalist, composer, arranger, and educator, and she has shared her musical gifts with audiences in the United States of America, Europe, and Asia. A native Clevelander and a product of the city’s public schools, her earliest forays into the world of music included work with her family’s business, her church, and student ensembles.
Her mother, Henrietta Coleman, established Coleman’s Gospel Music and Church Supply Store in the 1940s. As a result, she grew up listening to and meeting some of the most renowned gospel artists of her day, including Dr. Thomas Andrew Dorsey, “The Father of Gospel Music” and the founder of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. With her mother’s guidance and support, she also published her own songs, the first of which was “I Am Saved Unto Thee.”
Her teachers included Gladys Weaver, Helen Dean Seay, E. A. Kraft, and Thomas W. Hill. As a Central High School student, she participated in and served as the student director for the A Capella Choir. In the field of Music Ministry, she served at Shiloh Baptist Church, Second Mount Sinai Baptist Church, Mt. Zion Congregational Church, and Antioch Baptist Church, among others.
Her honors include recognition as a Master Gospel Artist by the Ohio Arts Council, having her life story included in the digital archive for The HistoryMakers®: The Nation’s largest African American Video Oral History Collection, and performing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Her book, In His Presence: A Memoir in Traditional Gospel, was published in 2014, and she currently serves on the board of the Gospel Music Historical Society.
Source: The Gospel Music Historical Society
African American Soul Dancing and Book Signing
The Linking Legacies Project Virtual Performance