The Sheen Center is presenting Broadway Inspirational Voices members Marva Hicks & Clarke Thorell – Jazz: A High Standard on Monday, January 23, 2017 at 7:30PM. The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture is located at 18 Bleecker Street in New York. Click here for tickets.
Gospel-based Michael McElroy and the Broadway Inspirational Voices joins the Sheen Center in a series of concerts celebrating an array of musical genres and highlighting the talents of individual members. All culminating in a live premier presentation of their newest YouTube music series “Broadway Our Way.” All shows curated and hosted by Michael McElroy.
With musical director Brian Whitted on piano, Jerry DeVore on bass and Joe Spinelli on drums.
Marva Hicks has appeared on Broadway in The Lion King, Motown the Musical, Lena Horne: The Lady and her Music and Caroline, or Change. Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors (City Center Encores! Off-Center), Cabin in the Sky (City Center Encores), Thunder Knocking on the Door (Minetta Lane) Caroline or Change (The Public) The First Breeze of Summer (The Signature Theatre). Regional: Arena Stage in Thunder Knocking on the Door (Helen Hayes Award), Cuttin Up, The Women of Brewster Place, co-produced with the Alliance Theatre (Suzi Award), Crowns, and Sophisticated Ladies. Bess (Austin Circle of Theatres B. Iden Payne Award) in the Zach Scott Theatre’s Jazz/Blues production of Porgy and Bess. TV: “Search Party,” “Dare Devil,” “House of Cards,” “One Life to Live,” “Mad About You,” “Star Trek: Voyager”. FILM: Labor Day, Assunder, Virtuosity, Preaching to the Choir. Marva has recorded on Polygram Records. TOURS: Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. She is currently touring in the symphony pops concert, Louis and Ella And All That Jazz. Currently playing the role of “Kruger” in The Front Page, Clarke Thorell made his Broadway debut in The Who’s Tommy. He originated the roles of “Corny Collins” in Hairspray, “Jim Farrell” in Titanic, and “Rooster” in the Broadway revival of ANNIE. As a vocalist, he has performed with Sting, Dave Brubeck, Liza Minnelli, ABBA, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Red Clay Ramblers, Pete Townshend, and is a proud member of Michael McElroy’s Broadway Inspirational Voices.
Broadway Inspirational Voices (BIV) is a diverse choir of Broadway artists united to change lives through the power of music and service.
The company was founded by Michael McElroy in 1994 as the Broadway Gospel Choir and in 1999 reincarnated to its current name. In 2010, BIV became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission consists of providing HOPE to INSPIRE and TRANSFORM youth in need through music and the arts.
In addition to numerous concerts, the Grammy nominated choir has performed with award winning artists such as Mariah Carey, the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, STING, Elton John, Vanessa Williams, Heather Headley, Billy Porter. BIV has been featured on The David Letterman Show, The Rosie O’Donnell Christmas Special, multiple Tony Awards Telecast, Smash and America’s Got Talent.
Broadway Inspirational Voices’ first album Great Joy: A Gospel Christmas was released on Sh-K-Boom Records and received a Grammy Award nomination. The choir just released their second holiday Christmas CD, Great Joy II: Around the World. broadwayinspirationalvoices.org
Named after the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, best known for his popular radio and TV ministry in the 1950s and 60s, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture is a project of the Archdiocese of New York with the mission of showcasing works in the performing and visual arts, lectures and symposia that highlight the true, the good, and the beautiful as they have been expressed throughout the ages. The state-of-the-art complex has a 274-seat proscenium theater equipped with five-camera high-definition livestream capability and a multi-track recording studio with thirty-two onstage inputs; an 80-seat black box theater; four rehearsal studios; and an art gallery. This facility is the newest arts center in Manhattan in 35 years and a great addition to the growing artistic community in the East Village/NoHo. www.sheencenter.org
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