Two people with Augusta ties are performing on quite different but renowned stages this week.
Damien Sneed, a 1996 graduate of John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, is scheduled to play Carnegie Hall Wednesday while Terri Gibbs has a date at the Grand Ole Opry June 20.
A Grammy-nominated artist and Dove Award winner, Sneed is set to perform Wednesday’s Juneteenth Celebration: All American Freedom Day 2024: The Year of Justice, Peace and Love at Carnegie Hall, according to Sneed’s Instagram post.
Sneed, a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer and arts educator and has worked with jazz, classical, pop and R&B legends such as the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman, and is featured on Norman’s final album, according to his website.
On June 18, Sneed accompanied soprano Jacqueline Echols McCarley of the Cincinnati Opera for “Soul and Spirit: A Musical Journey through Sacred Songs, Spirituals and Hymns” as part of the Cincinnati Opera’s Studio Sessions.
Courtesy Facebook
The program featured a broad spectrum of pieces from Franz Schubert’s “Die Allmacht” Opus 49, No. 2 to Andrae Crouch’s “My Tribute.”
Others on the June 19 program include Gregory Porter, Joseph Joubert, The Black Iris Project and the New Jersey Youth Symphony.
On country music’s most revered stage, Gibbs, who is probably best known for her 1981 hit “Somebody’s Knockin’,” will perform at 7 p.m. June 20.
Gibbs announced the Grand Ole Opry appearance on her Facebook page.
The year “Somebody’s Knockin’” was released turned out to be a big one for the area resident who received the Country Music Association’s inaugural Horizon Award for new artist of the year, The Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female of the Year as well as her first Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female.
For those who can’t be in Nashville to see the performance, they can tune into https://wsmradio.com/listen-live/ to catch Gibbs.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
