Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents two performances perfect for the whole family!
April 14, 2010LA-based drum, music and dance ensemble STREET BEAT combines urban rhythms, hip-hop moves and break dance acrobatics into an explosive, high-energy performance
Grammy ® nominated vocal ensemble Linda Tillery & the Cultural Heritage Choir share the rich traditions of African American Roots music
(Philadelphia, April 14, 2010) — The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents not one but two performances perfect for the whole family. First, the high-energy, LA-based drum, music and dance ensemble STREET BEAT combine urban rhythms, hip-hop moves and break dance acrobatics into one explosive performance on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 7:30 PM at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets for the performance start at just $10. On Friday, April 30, 2010 at 8:00 PM, Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir, a Grammy® nominated, five member-strong a cappella ensemble embark on an illuminating and highly spirited journey of African American history. The ensemble’s mission is to help preserve and share the rich musical traditions of African American roots music with a repertoire that runs the gamut from spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, funk, soul and hip-hop. Tickets for the performance are $25 or $40. For tickets or for more information, please visit AnnenbergCenter.org or call 215.898.3900. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Annenberg Center Box Office. Both artists are also featured main stage performers during the 26th annual Philadelphia International Children’s Festival taking place at the Annenberg Center April 27-May 1, 2010.
STREET BEAT
STREET BEAT delivers an explosion of urban percussion that’s accented by high-energy dance acrobatics and staged within a landscape of everyday-objects-turned-instruments, smattered graffiti, and bursts of theatrical lighting. This 10-member ensemble of drummers, musicians, and dancers led by Danish-born founder Ben Hansen perform what critics have called "… an urbanized journey through percussion," which brings the raw rhythmic originality of many popular street-style performances together in a dynamic and thrilling stage production.”
Linda Tillery & the Cultural Heritage Choir
Performing together since 1992, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir’s (CHC) first collaboration with veteran performers Taj Mahal and Eric Bibb entitled "Shakin' A Tailfeather," was nominated for a Grammy Award (1997) and their second collaborative effort "Hippity Hop", was awarded a Parents Choice Award (2000). In January 2010, CHC celebrated the released their fourth recording titled Still We Sing, Still We Rise, featuring plantation romps like “Little Rosie”, a funky remake of Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” and the satirical Cuban classic, “Si Dios Fuera Negro” (If God Were Black). CHC is Linda Tillery, Rhonda Benin, Elouise Burrell, Bryan Dyer and Simon Monserrat.
A native of San Francisco, Linda Tillery is a Grammy nominated vocalist, producer, arranger, speaker and self-taught ethno-musicologist. For the past 16 years she has dedicated her artistic life to the research, teaching, and performance of the great African American oral tradition of song, stick, and story - the ancestor of today’s American popular song. In 1992, Tillery founded the Cultural Heritage Choir (CHC) to tell the story of slavery and its lingering effects from the point of view of the slaves for whom music was often their only voice. The group has expanded its repertoire to also include music from Africa, South America and the Caribbean.
At the age of 19, Linda Tillery became lead singer of the Berkeley based soul/rock band Loading Zone and later was a founding member of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra. Her first solo recording, Linda Tillery (1977), won a Bammy (Bay Area Music Award) for “Best Independently Produced Album” and Tillery was twice named “Outstanding Female Vocalist” at the Bay Area Jazz Awards (1983-1984). She has shared the stage with Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Sheila E., Kelly Joe Phelps, Vicki Randle, Narada Michael Walden, Boz Skaggs, Ensemble Tartit, Regis Gizalvo, Eric Bibb, Pauline Oliveiros, Odetta, Richie Havens, Wilson Pickett, Arlo Guthrie, Boz Skaggs,Tom Scott, Danny Glover, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, ODC Dance Company, Tandy Beal Dance Company, Dimensions Dance Theater and Zaccho Dance Theater. She has appeared on more than 70 recordings.
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