LeChateau Earl Records
releases “The Three Sides of Damien Sneed: Classical, Jazz and Sanctified
Soul.” The three-disc CD features 39 tracks with more than two hours of music.
“The Three Sides of Damien Sneed” is available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play
and all other digital retail outlets everywhere. This magnum opus showcases the
broad musicality of Sneed, whose musical skills and performance credits
encompass everything from jazz and show tunes to opera and R&B. The set
includes original tunes composed by Sneed as well as his unique arrangements of
known works.
“The Three Sides of Damien Sneed: Classical, Jazz and
Sanctified Soul has been in the works for a very long time,” notes Sneed. “I’ve
spent my entire life trying to create and develop my brand as a multi-genre
artist, but it wasn’t until I met my publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, who
single-handedly helped me to bring my brand to a definitive point of
culmination. I realized that my recorded body of work did not represent all of
what I did, so I decided to record this multi-genre project.”
As the CD title indicates, the first disc is a collection of
meaningful classical works by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Strauss and several African
American contemporary composers including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Mark Fax,
Hale Smith, and Sneed. Guest artists include vocalist Justin Michael Austin,
who will debut in the 2018/2019 production of Puccini’s “La fanciulla del West”
at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany; and The Metropolitan Opera’s
Brandie Sutton, who currently stars as Clara in Seattle Opera’s “Porgy and
Bess.”
Disc 2 focuses on Sneed’s considerable chops as a jazz
interpreter, composer, pianist, and vocalist. Included are jazz standards “Over
The Rainbow,” “Nature Boy,” and “Pure Imagination,” as well as jazz and gospel
favorites like “Moanin’,” “God Bless The Child,” and “Wade in the Water.”
Sneed’s sidemen include Grammy Award winner Ben Williams (bass), Jonathan
Barber (drums), and Julius Rodriguez (piano).
Disk 3 is an 11-track exploration of Sneed’s gospel roots,
combining favorite spirituals from his churchgoing childhood, like “Take My
Hand, Precious Lord,” “Over My Head,” and “You’ve Got To Move;” and a prayer
from a work by Wynton Marsalis; and Sneed’s composition “He’s Right There By
Your Side.” In addition to Sneed, vocalists include Anitra McKinney, Chenee
Campbell, Quinn Brown, and Matia Washington. The disc includes audio clips of
Sneed as an 8-year-old music student.
Recently City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage presented the
inaugural concert version of “The Three Sides of Damien Sneed: Classical, Jazz
and Sanctified Soul” in New York’s historic Central Park. The annual main stage
concert event featured soprano Brandie Sutton and Grammy-nominated artists
Stefon Harris and Keke Wyatt.
Damien Sneed is a pianist, organist, conductor, composer,
producer, arranger, vocal coach, and arts educator; Sneed has worked with jazz,
classical, pop and R&B legends including Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis,
Jessye Norman, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, Lawrence
Brownlee and many others. The
multi-genre recording artist is a recipient of the prestigious Sphinx Medal of
Excellence, which is presented annually to emerging Black and Latino leaders in
classical music. A graduate of John S. Davidson Fine Arts School in his
hometown of Augusta, Ga., he earned a Bachelor of Music – Piano Performance
from Howard University and a Master of Music in Music Technology: Scoring for
Film and Multimedia from New York University. Sneed will also graduate with his
doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from USC in Fall 2018. He is the founder and
artistic director of the international vocal ensemble Chorale Le Chateau, and
the founder of LeChateau Earl Records.
In April 2018, Sneed and his longtime collaborator,
classical artist Audrey DuBois Harris, presented a five-song EP, “God Bless
America,” which he produced and released on LeChateau Earl Records.
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