California Revels Presents Melanie DeMore 2022-07-09 02:00 PM PDT
California Revels is a nonprofit community theater company that has enthralled audiences in Oakland, CA for over 37 years. We celebrate the changing of the seasons through participatory theatrical performances that encapsulate song, dance, storytelling, cultural traditions, and ancient ceremonies! Today we are debuting a concert series that presents performers not only from past California Revels productions, but also from other Revels cities around the country. There are currently nine Revels cities nationwide, so perhaps you are near one of us!
Our first artist is none other than Melanie DeMore, a Tradition Bearer and performer in our 2021 Christmas Revels, La Siréne. For that show, Melanie educated our cast and crew on some of the rich traditions, spirituals, and history of the Gullah people. She led our audiences in deep and powerful songs from their culture, invoking the shared struggles and hope of people then and now. Today, via California Revels Concerts Presents, Melanie—vocal activist, Grammy-nominated artist, and, most recently a Grand Marshal in the 2022 San Francisco Pride Parade—shares her vast knowledge and incredible talent with you as well.
Melanie DeMore : Vocal Activist ( 3 time Grammy Nominee) is one of the most outstanding vocal artists of today helping to preserve the African American Folk Tradition through song and Gullah stick pounding. She was the subject of a documentary called 'Stick and Pound which showcases this tradition.She has a career spanning 30 years dedicated to teaching, lecturing, mentoring, conducting, directing and inspiring children and adults about the power of song as social and political change. Melanie is a sought after presenter, conductor and soloist at national and international choral and music festivals, including Festival 500 in Newfoundland, Canada and Chorus America.
She is sought after as a song/ prayer facilitator, creating spontaneous choirs for The Trinity Institute, The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society and the Powell Foundation as well as many varied spiritual and faith based organizations.She is adjunct faculty at the California Institute for Integral Studies, Master teaching artist for CalPerformances at UC Berkeley, a featured presenter for SpeakOut! the Institute for Social and Cultural Change and was the Artistic Conductor of The Oakland Children’s Community Choir with Living Jazz for nine years.
She was a founding member of the Grammy nominated, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir and has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with such varied artists as Odetta, Richey Havens, Pete Seeger, the Trinity Choir, MUSE Cincinatti Women's Chorus and many others.
Melanie DeMore is a singer/songwriter, composer ,conductor and vocal activist, who believes in the power of voices raised together.
She says:
'A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you".
http://melaniedemore.com/
