Vocalist/music educator/composer Semenya McCord will perform her show "Classic Blues Connection" in Quad-City schools February 18-20 as part of the Mississippi Valley Blues Society's Blues in the Schools Artist-in-Residence program for Black History Month.
She will also perform two open-to-the-public shows:
- Wed. Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m.?CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 1035 West Kimberly Road, Davenport IA
- Wed. Feb. 18 at 7:00 p.m.?River Music Experience, 2nd & Main Streets, Davenport IA
Semenya's "Classic Blues Connection," with pianist Frank Wilkins, highlights important roots of American popular music from 1900 to 1935, featuring Classic Blues women Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. This is perfectly paired with Wilkins demonstrating early piano styles from boogie woogie to Scott Joplin's ragtime and Duke Ellington's jazz.?
Semenya McCord earned her degree in Music Education from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Her popular musician father, the late Ken Henderson, was an early and significant influence on her desire to sing and touch people through music. At the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, she was turned on to the powerful traditions of gospel music with Horace C. Boyer and of jazz with master drummer Max Roach and reedman Archie Shepp.?
Semenya performed throughout New England for over 25 years, presenting programs and residencies featuring spirituals, blues, traditional and contemporary jazz for audiences of all ages through Young Audiences of Massachusetts, Inc., the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the New England Foundation for the Arts.?
Since 1982, she directed annual tributes to the life and "dream" of Martin Luther King, Jr., the music of Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington, and community events that celebrate cultural diversity through the arts.? In 1988, she was awarded "Outstanding Jazz Vocalist" by the Boston Music Awards, and she received the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Musical Excellence in 1990 from the city of Boston.
Semenya returned home to Galesburg, Illinois in 2003 to assist her mother; she earned her Master's degree in Music at Northern Illinois University in 2006. Semenya currently teaches Jazz Voice at Knox College and teaches General Music and directs student choirs at Lombard Middle School. ? She is an active member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity and the Music Educators National Conference.?
Pianist Frank Wilkins, a native of Milwaukee, moved to Boston in the early 1970s. Wilkins has become known as a "jazzmatician"?a consummate music director and pianist among national and international venues and with vocalists, a multimedia producer/director, music composer, arranger and experienced private instructor?with awards from The Artists' Foundation (Boston), Composition Fellowship (Berklee College of Music) and The Hank Jones Jazz Masters Award. ?
Playing virtually every major jazz and blues venue throughout New England, Wilkins has shared a stage with Angela Bofill, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kevin Eubanks, Tiger Okoshi, and Archie Shepp, to name a few. His career has included performances at the Newport Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, and North Sea Jazz Festival; and in West Africa , Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and Mexico.?
Semenya McCord's residency is made possible by a major grant from the Riverboat Development Authority. Thanks also to sponsors the River Music Experience, KALA Radio, and The Lodge.
