Living Legends Festival will honor musicians

The concert will be held at Holman United Methodist Church, 3320  W. Adams Blvd., the Rev. Henry  L. Masters is the host pastor. There is  no charge for the concert, a freewill offering will be accepted.
Dr.  Don Lee White, Rodena Preston and the recently deceased Glenn Burleigh,  will be honored during the gala concert.
Dr. White is a noted  composer, arranger, organist-pianist, member of the National Association  of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM), Georgia Laster Branch of NANM and the  founding-director of the dlw Community Chorale. Preston is a musican,  conductor, national board member of the Gospel Music Workshop of America  and director of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of  America.
Burleigh was the composer of the popular “Order My Steps,”  and many other gospel music presented nationally.
“The careers of  these visionary musicians have been devoted to composing, performing,  preserving and nurturing the sacred music of the black church. Their  compositions will be performed by the Festival Choir at the concert,”  said Dr. Hansonia Caldwell, co-director of the festival. “The Annual  African Diaspora Sacred Music Living Legends Festival  was organized in  2003 to facilitate cultural preservation and awareness and musical  exchange within Southern California by bringing distinguished African  Diaspora musicians to work with the choral musicians of the area.”
The  concert will feature the Festival Choir with voices from the CSU  Dominguez Hills Jubilee Choir, Dr. Caldwell, director; and Chamber  Singers, Dr. Sally Etcheto, director; the dlw Community Chorale, Dr.  White, director; and the Los Angeles Chapter of the Gospel Music  Workshop of America, Rodena Preston, director.
Other participants  will include the Georgia Laster Branch Symphonic Chorale, Dorothy Hayes,  director; Holman’s Choir, William Campbell, director; Knox Presbyterian  Church’s Chancel Choir, Dr. Caldwell, director; and El Camino College  Ensemble, Dr. Joanna Nachef, director.  Dr. Nachef is also co-director  of the festival.
Alta Ballard is the featured soloist at the concert  and the accompanists include Anthony Kendricks and Carolyn Singleton.
The  rehearsals for the Festival Choir will begin on Saturday, April 5, at  2:30 p.m. in LaCorte Hall A103 of CSU Dominguez Hills, 1000 E. Victoria  in Carson, Parking Lot 6.  Singers from the community are welcome.  Registration is $15.
The “Jacqueline Hairston Remembers Jester  Hairston” lecture  will be featured on Monday, April 7, at 11:30 a.m.  Dr. White will present “The Los Angeles History of the African American  Church and its Music,” on Wednesday, April 9, at 11:30 a.m.  Both  lectures  held in LaCorte Hall,  are free and open to the public.
The  festival is presented as a collaborative  program of the music  departments at CSU Dominguez Hills and El Camino College, and the CSUDH  Georgia and Nolan Payton Archive of Sacred Music.
Dr. Caldwell said,  “The Center for the Study of African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians  has as its primary mission the study of the life and work of African  Diaspora musicians in the field of sacred music and the preservation and  performance of their music.  The special focus of the center is to  research, collect, preserve and perform the life and work of African  Diaspora musicians whose work has been created and/or performed  in  Southern California.”
The professor of music and Africana studies  at CSUDH, Dr. Caldwell is the author of two books in the field, African  American Music, A Chronology: 1619-1995, and African American Music,  Spirituals.
For more information, call Dr. Caldwell (310) 243-2463,  or email Hcaldwell@csudh.edu.