Melanie DeMore: Community SingOut!

Rhythmix is proud to present singer-songwriter Melanie DeMore and her remarkable voice, weaving the fibers of African American folk music with soulful ballads, spirituals and her own original music as its first Island Arts Concert of 2012. DeMore beautifully brings her audience together through her music and commentary as part of this Island Arts Concert series. She has toured extensively, singing at festivals, universities, in coffee houses and concert halls. This family concert will also feature DeMore leading community singing and a Gullah stick-pounding piece featuring an inter-generational mix of kids and their families from the Alameda Boys & Girls Club.

In addition to her solo work, DeMore facilitates vocal workshops for professional and community-based choral groups and has taught her program called "Sound Awareness" in schools, prisons, and youth organizations in the US, Canada, Cuba and New Zealand. DeMore was a California Artist in Residence with the Oakland Youth Chorus for 10 years and has received an award from the Music Educators National Conference for her work with young singers and artists.

She is a featured artist/presenter for SpeakOut!: The Institute for Social and Cultural Change and is Adjunct faculty at the California Institute for Integral Studies. She is on the music faculty at St. Paul's School in Oakland and at the East Bay School for Boys where she teaches acapella singing and body music. She is also the artistic director/conductor of the Oakland Community Children's Choir with Living Jazz.

DeMore was a founding member of the critically-acclaimed, Grammy- nominated vocal ensemble, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, a group that has toured extensively through out the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Her belief in the power of the voice can be summed up in a line from her writings: “A SONG CAN KEEP YOU ON YOUR FEET WHEN THERE SEEMS TO BE NO GROUND BENEATH YOU.

Rhythmix Cultural Works (RCW) opened its doors in 2007 as a community arts center to bring people of all ages together for a wide range of high quality arts experiences. Only five minutes from downtown Oakland off Hwy 880, RCW offers a beautifully renovated 150-seat theater, art gallery and classroom as affordable space for live performances, exhibitions, arts education and cultural exchange for youth, families and adults. By providing a range of exhibits, workshops, classes and performances, RCW supports local, regional and international artists in the presentation of their work and strives to encourage community awareness through participation in the arts. 

http://youtu.be/mQlg-UomM8k

This concert is made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.