Meet our distinguished mentors for this program: Candace Johnson and Kev Choice.

In the Spring of 2021 at The Marsh Theater, Johnson premiered a solo musical performance series titled The Art Songs of Black Composers, wherein she uniquely integrates vocal performance, theatrical storytelling, and music analysis — all to champion the songs and lives of African American composers past and present.

Also a fitness enthusiast, in 2020, Johnson launched FitnesSing!™, a new vocal health approach she designed that combines vocal training with physical fitness and dance. FitnesSing!™ streams live every Friday at noon on The Marsh Theater’s virtual platform, the MarshStream. It is quickly becoming the rave with singers of every skill level.

In 2018, Johnson premiered her first one-woman show, VOX in a BOX– the musical biography of how she found her “voice.” In VOX in a BOX Johnson uniquely fuses her black music heritage and classical training with storytelling to explore themes of identity, race, belonging, and freedom of expression.

On the voice faculty at the University of California-Berkeley since 2009, Johnson teaches applied voice classes and a musicology course she designed based on her research and performance of works by African-American composers. Prior to her current appointment, she was awarded a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the music department. Johnson earned her doctorate in voice performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with the late Shirley Verrett, as well as George Shirley and Willis Patterson.

Pianist. Emcee. Producer. Bandleader. Sideman. Music historian. Kev Choice wears many hats, and all of them fit. Blessed with prodigious talent, plus the skill and dedication to his craft to pull it off, the Oakland-based artist is redefining what it means to be a musician in this day and age. Not too many classically-trained pianists who hold Master’s degrees in jazz can rock microphones with blazing-hot 16s.

Yet such versatility comes natural to Choice, whose diverse array of influences ranges from Prince to Rakim to A Tribe Called Quest to Stevie Wonder to McCoy Tyner to Chopin and Ravel.

“I grew up in the Hip-Hop era,” he explains. “I had love for Hip-Hop before I even knew what classical music really was.” Hip-Hop, he says, “was always the music that helped me express myself the most,” while “Classical music gave me a broader understanding and appreciation for music beyond Hip-Hop.”

Thank you to our venue partner, New Destiny Church!

New Destiny is a multi-cultural apostolic church that strengthens families and goes beyond the wall of the church to impact our region.