INFORMATION FOR
The Dixie Hummingbirds, an influential American gospel music group spanning more than 80 years, will perform at William Paterson University on Saturday, February 6 in the Shea Center for Performing Arts. The concert will begin at 7 p.m. with special guest performances by local artists Scott O. Cumberbatch, piano, and Lorraine Stancil, vocalist. A pioneering force behind the evolution of the modern gospel quartet sound, the Dixie Hummingbirds are among the longest-lived and most successful groups of their era. Formed in 1928 as a group of high school students singing a cappella in Greenville, South Carolina, the “Birds” have become genre icons, and have been dubbed “iron men” of gospel, performing uninterrupted for the last 80 years. By 1942, the Dixie Hummingbirds were wowing audiences at Café Society, New York’s first integrated nightclub, backed by legendary saxophonist Lester Young. In the 1950s, they routinely brought down the house at the Apollo theater. The group broke into popular consciousness in 1966 when they prompted a standing ovation at the Newport Folk Festival, and still greater fame in 1973, when they backed Paul Simon on his smash hit, “Loves Me Like a Rock.” The Birds own rendition of the tune won them a Grammy in 1974. They are also National Heritage Fellows. Renowned for their imaginative arrangements, progressive harmonies, and all-around versatility, they earned almost universal recognition as the greatest Southern quartet of their generation, and their influence spread not only over the world of spiritual music but also inspired secular artists. The group has performed with the Temptations, Al Green, Stevie Wonder and countless others, and their performances are just as exciting and moving today as they have ever been. Special guest Scott O. Cumberbatch, a 2007 graduate of William Paterson and director of the music ministry for the Trinity Baptist Church of Hackensack, NJ, opens the concert, followed by Lorraine Stancil, a gospel singer who made her first recorded appearance with the youth choir of the Bible Way Church in Paterson. Her latest CD is Holy is the Lamb. This project is partially funded by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. The event is part of William Paterson’s WP Live Vistas Series, designed to serve the University’s students and faculty, as well as the surrounding multicultural community. Funding for the Vistas Series at William Paterson University has been made possible, in part, by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State. Tickets to the show are $40 for gold circle, $30 for orchestra, and $20 for loge. For ticket information, call the Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371 or order online at www.wplive.org.
