The Music Hall is collaborating with the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire to celebrate Juneteenth, Friday, June 18, 2021, 7:30 PM, with a special concert FEELING GOOD: N’KENGE CELEBRATES AFRICAN AMERICAN SOPRANOS.
Long before Marian Anderson made history when she sang at the Lincoln Memorial, New Hampshire’s 18th century African American soprano Nellie Brown Mitchell was making history in music halls across the country.
In this live concert at The Music Hall, Broadway soprano N’Kenge will honor Nellie Brown Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, and other famous African American female singers who changed the trajectory of American music.
“It is an absolute thrill for me to honor and celebrate Nellie Brown Mitchell here in her home state. She was not only a phenomenal singer, but also an entrepreneur, a music director and an inventor at a time when Black women were only expected to be servants,” N’Kenge said when asked how she felt about honoring Mitchell.
N’Kenge is an international award-winning singer and performer with a musical range that spans 11 languages and includes genres that stretch from opera, gospel, and jazz to pop and musical theatre. She was called “Electrifying” by the NY Post in the role of Mary Wells that she originated in Broadway’s smash hit Motown: The Musical. N’Kenge was recently seen on national TV singing the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden and will be returning to Broadway this fall in the role of The Moon in the revival of Caroline, or Change.
A graduate of both The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, N’Kenge starred in London’s West End at the Theatre Royal in a tribute to the late great Ray Charles and has done solo engagements at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. She has sung at the White House for President Bill Clinton and for the Commander-in-Chief Ball for President Obama. She is also the star, conceiver, and producer of Broadway-bound musical based on Hollywood’s own African American star Dorothy Dandridge.
N’Kenge will be accompanied by The Right Now Gospel Blues Band which includes Musical Director and pianist Austin Davy, violist David Eure, drummer James “Batman” Kaddy, base player Rev. Jeffrey McIlwain, horn player Charlie Jennison, along with actor/dancer Nate Scott.
“We are so excited to be working with the Music Hall to bring such a talented voice to our New Hampshire audience. And I can’t think of a more appropriate time to celebrate one of our own historic figures than at this Juneteenth celebration,” said JerriAnne Boggis, Executive Director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated event commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared that as of Jan. 1, 1863, all slaves in states in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” However, it was not until June 19th, 1865, two years later, when the US Army took possession of Galveston Island in Texas and began a war against defenders of slavery, that enslaved people in Galveston could begin their journey towards freedom.
The 2021 three-day celebration, “Found Lineage: Celebrating African American Roots and Branches” is sponsored by Eastern Bank, ReVision Energy, People’s United Bank, the University of New Hampshire, The Portsmouth Music Hall, McLane Middleton, and Centrus Digital. The concert will be held at The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, NH. Tickets can be purchased for $35.00 via www.blackheritagetrailnh.org or www.themusichall.org. For more information about other Juneteenth programs, please go to www.blackheritagetrailnh.org or call (603) 570-8469.
