Grammy Award-winning composer, pianist, and arranger Richard Smallwood will reunite with the New England Conservatory's Millennium Gospel Choir for the 25th anniversary edition of the Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee, February 14 and 15 at NEC's Jordan Hall. Smallwood and the choir will be joined in two performances by vocal and instrumental ensembles from NEC and Boston area churches. Musical selections will be drawn from the deepest rural traditions to the youngest urban expressions. In addition, local musicians will be honored on the Saturday night program with the presentation of the NEC Gospel Award and the NEC/Anna Bobbit-Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award.

The concerts will serve as the centerpiece of the African-American Sacred Music Institute, which offers a variety of workshops, lectures, and demonstrations, February 12 - 16. Focus of these events is the sacred music of Duke Ellington.

Calvin L. Hicks, Director of NEC's Community Collaborations, and Patricia Dance and Donnell L. Patterson of GNE Productions are co-producers of the Jubilee and Institute.

Classically trained in both piano and vocal performance, Richard Smallwood began performing in his father's church at the age of seven when he played piano for the main choir. At age 11, he formed his first gospel group. At Howard University where he graduated cum laude, he was a member of the first gospel group on campus and with that ensemble, The Celestials, introduced gospel to Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival.

Smallwood's recording career began in the late 1970s with The Richard Smallwood Singers, an album that spent 87 weeks on Billboard's Gospel chart. He won a Grammy Award and a Dove Award in 1992 for his work on the Quincy Jones gospel project, Handel's Messiah-A Soulful Celebration. Smallwood has also written music for other performers; Whitney Houston sang his song I Love the Lord in the movie The Preacher's Wife.

The weekend's events include the following:

*Gospel Jubilee Concerts, Saturday February 14 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, February 15 at 3 p.m. in Jordan Hall. On the first half of the program, performers include: Donnell L. Patterson and David Hall presenting the NEC Gospel Jubilee Invocation, NEC Gospel Jubilee Ensemble Band under the direction of Dennis Montgomery III, Madison Third Heaven Brass Band under the direction of Gordon Galloway, George W. Russell Jr. Trio, NEC's Pentatonic Vocal Quintet, NEC's Community Gospel Choir under the direction of Hobert S. Yates, St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church's Angels Without Wings children's choir, and Concord Baptist's Children of Christ Choir. Evelyn Lee Jones is vocal soloist.

Richard Smallwood and the Millennium Gospel Choir will take the stage for the second half of the concerts, along with Freda Battle and the Temple Worshippers. Conductors of the Millennium Gospel Choir include past NEC Gospel Music Award recipients: Freda Battle, James A. Early, Herb Jones, Renese King, Dennis Montgomery III, Donnell L. Patterson, George W. Russell, Jr., Dennis L. Slaughter, and Hobert S. Yates.

*Pre-concert Lectures, Saturday, February 14 at 5:30-6:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 15 at 1:30- 2:30 p.m. at New England Conservatory.

Tickets for the Jubilee concerts are $20 and go on sale at the NEC Box Office, January 24. The box office is located at 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston. To order, call the 617-585-1260. Tickets are also available at the St. Paul AME Tree of Life and New Covenant Christian Church Sanctuary Bookstores on January 24.

For more information, call the NEC Concert Line at (617) 585-1122 or visit NEC on the web at www.newenglandconservatory.edu/calendar.

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

Founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee, NEC is the oldest independent school of music in the United States and the only one designated a National Historic Landmark. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, contemporary improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes-thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.

NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year In Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 100-year old, beautifully- restored concert hall. These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to opera scenes. Every year, NEC's opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of "From the Top," a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by more than two hundred stations throughout the United States.