NGOMA YA KAISILI (MUSIC OF THE ANCESTORS) -- Jubilate’s 2005 Juneteenth Festival presented by Miami Performing Arts Center (MPAC) in the historic Overtown Folklife Village, June 17- 20.
Wednesday, May 18 2005

MUSIC GROUP'S CONCERT SCHOOLS YOUNG MUSICIANS
MIAMI HERALD
Thursday, July 22nd 2004

JUBILATE ARTS PREPARATORY ACADEMY'S BENEFIT CONCERT
Wednesday, May 19th 2004

OPERATIC STARS LIFT POPS' NIGHT OF GERSHWIN
PALM BEACH POST
Tuesday, January 6th 2004

SUMMER TRAINING IS FOR FUTURE MUSICIANS
THE MIAMI HERALD
Thursday, April 17th 2003

JUBLIATE 10th ANNIVERSARYCELEBRATION
THE MIAMI HERALD
Sunday,March 16th 2003

ACADEMY CATERS TO AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSIC
WELL-KNOWN TEACHERS, NO TUITION CHARGED
THE MIAMI HERALD
Thursday, October 19, 2000
By Herald staff

JUBILATE SYMPHONY OFF TO PROMISING START
THE MIAMI HERALD
Tuesday, April 27, 1999
By JAMES ROOS, Herald Music Critic

ORCHESTRA BANDS TOGETHER FOR HARMONY
THE MIAMI HERALD
Sunday, April 25, 1999
By DANNY GUEVARA, Special to The Herald

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jubilate’s Benefit Concert
May 19, 2004
Contact: Ira L. Everett, Jr.
Phone: 954.559.0587
E: ILEverettjr@earthlink.net

Jubilate’s “A Jazz, Gospel and Classical Spectacular,” to Benefit Music Education for At-Risk Youth
Local Music All Stars to Perform, Featuring
Ruby Baker, Longineu Parsons, Felix Spengler &Nicole Yarling
Miami, Fl… May 19, 2004- Jubilate’s Board of Directors and the Friends of Jubilate presents the Jubilate Arts Preparatory Academy's (JAPA) Summer Benefit Concert, featuring Ruby Baker, Longineu Parsons, Felix Spengler, Nicole Yarling and many other very special performers in “A Jazz, Gospel and Classical Spectacular,” 6 PM, Sunday, June 20 at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 DeSoto Boulevard in Coral Gables, located just across the street from the Biltmore Hotel.

“Thanks to our wonderful partnership with these artists and the Coral Gables Congregational Church, we were be able to create what promises to be a wonderful program, featuring some of the best known jazz, gospel and classical music ever performed in one place”, said Dr. Nelson Hall, Jubilate’s Founder.
“In addition, at a time when funding for music education programs is under attack, the proceeds will enable us to expand the Academy’s free music education programs for South Florida's at-risk youth.”

Jazz violinist, vocalist and poet, Nicole Yarling was “discovered” and nurtured by the legendary Joe Williams.Her musical excursions have brought about stints with Dizzy Gillespie, and three years on tour as a featured soloist with Jimmy Buffett.
Hailed by critics as being one of the world’s finest trumpet players, Longineu Parsons; a master of recorders, flute, percussion also sings the blues. He has shared the stage and recording studio with Cab Calloway, Sun Ra, Nat Adderley, Cecil Taylor, Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Herbie Mann, Frank Foster and many others. His music ranges from jazz and world to classical compositions including orchestral works, chamber music and solo literature. “My music serves as a metaphor for crossing restrictive boundaries that separate people and confine human potential.”

Born in La Habana, Cuba, Felix Spengler was a student of the renowned Russian pedagogue Mme. Nina Svetlanova of the Moscow Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. The Amsterdam News for its “dazzling technical virtuosity” and The Main Liner Times of Philadelphia for “bringing the audience to its feet” have lauded a featured artist on many National Public Radio (NPR) programs, his work. “He’s a pianist of formidable talent with tremendous interpretive capabilities”.

An amazing, versatile professional entertainer, Ruby Baker’s extensive vocal abilities in Rhythm & Blues, Jazz and Gospel “will blow you away.” She has opened for and worked withGloria Estefan, Kenny G., Ray Charles, Hootie & The Blowfish, B.B. King, The Manhattans, Regina Belle, The Bee Gees, Bobby Womack and The four Tops.

The evening’s hostess is Maggie Pelleyá, GeneralManagerWDNA-FM 88.9
“We founded the Jubilate Arts Preparatory Academy (JAPA) because, as community educators, we have too often seen low-income, promising students with enormous talent slowed because of a lack of financial support, encouragement, consistent top-quality training, or awareness of the many options available to them in the performing arts”, stated Josef Spencer, Jubilate’s CEO.
Now in its fifth year, JAPA has trained over 250 students, all high school seniors enrolled in the program have graduated and over 85% of the graduates were awarded college scholarships.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami- Dade Cultural Affairs, the City of Miami, the Keith & Renata Ward Family Fund, Miami Dade Public Schools, Greater Bethel AME Church, WDNA-FM 88.9 and Coral Gables Congregational Church make the Academy programs possible.

Concert tickets are, $25 when purchased in advance, $35 at the door and $50 for Patron / Reserved seating. Information and advance ticket purchase forms are available on Jubilate’s website at www.jubilatearts.org. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Jubilate Arts Preparatory Academy. For more information, please call, 954.559-0587.

Editors Note: Photos and Interviews with Jubilate principals and guest artists may be secured by calling (954) 559.0587.

THE MIAMI HERALD

ACADEMY CATERS TO AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSIC WELL-KNOWN TEACHERS, NO TUITION CHARGED

Thursday, October 19, 2000
Section: Neighbors NW
Edition: Final
Page: 9NW
Herald staff
Memo: NORTH DADE

An academy that aims to promote classical music among African Americans, especially youths, is being started at Florida Memorial College as a joint effort between the school and Jubilate, a multicultural, multiracial organization whose mission is to promote, preserve, perform and record compositions by African Americans and compositions based on African, Latin and Caribbean traditions.

The Jubilate Arts Preparatory Academy will provide talented students with professional, top-quality training by the Jubilate Symphony Orchestra and the Jubilate Vocal Ensemble - both programs run by Jubilate - Florida Memorial College's music faculty, the Florida Grand Opera and the New World Symphony.

``We look forward to this educational partnership because we believe that our music students will benefit greatly from observing and having hands-on experience with a professional performing organization like Jubilate which is also dedicated to the artistic development of future generations,'' said John Scott, director of humanities at North Dade-based Florida Memorial College. ``This has been a dream of mine for many years.''

Josef Spencer, Jubilate's president and CEO, said educating the community and especially young people is ``the most important ingredient'' of his group's mission.

``It is with this vision in mind that Jubilate created the Jubilate Arts Preparatory Academy,'' Spencer said.

The academy, which has an annual budget of $86,000, is receiving a $37,500 grant over two years from the Dade Community Foundation's Arts and Culture Initiative, $15,000 from the Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Council, $12,000 from the Florida Arts Council, $10,000 from the Peacock Foundation, $2,500 from Citizens Interested in the Arts and $1,500 from the Florida Theatrical Association, Spencer said.

Spencer said additional sources are being asked for funds so the academy can continue on an ongoing basis.

``Too many kids in our community with a lot of raw talent become discouraged and stop developing because they do not have the resources to get one-on-one training or an instrument of their own,'' said David Eccles, assistant music director of Jubilate's Arts Preparatory Academy. Eccles will be teaching strings.

Nelson Hall, Jubilate's founder and music director said the academy will provide an exceptional training opportunity for young people and also better help students understand and appreciate the influence of African Americans, and members of the African diaspora, on classical music. He will teach vocals.

``The support of the Dade Community Foundation will enable the academy to better serve our students and their community, as studies have solidified how music education increases the learning capabilities of children,'' Hall said.

Jubilate will select 24 string players ages 13 to 18 and 16 mixed vocalists ages 16-18 for the academy.

The objectives of the academy are:

* To provide talented students from Miami-Dade County, especially those from under-privileged families, an opportunity to advance their professional training.

* To introduce music students to African-American musical traditions and repertoire, thus expanding their musical horizons.

* To develop a student string ensemble and chorus that can present music from the African-American musical heritage to schools and community groups around South Florida, thus increasing public awareness of this rich musical heritage.

* To develop a multiethnic, multicultural student string ensemble and chorus that can instill in its participants a sense of self-worth, encourage cooperation and collaboration and improve their memory and learning skills - all traits that are important to their future academic careers as well as their musical training.

* To prepare students for educational opportunities and careers in the performing arts.

Beginning on Jan. 9, 2001, the students will meet twice a week for two hours after school for classes in music theory, sight-reading and development of repertoire. An average of one master class a month will also be offered. The school year will run through May 31.

There is no charge for the academy. Students will be given $250 to help them pay for lessons, instruments, music-related travel and other expenses that keep many of them from fully realizing their dreams.

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THE MIAMI HERALD
JUBILATE SYMPHONY OFF TO PROMISING START

Tuesday, April 27, 1999
Section: Local
Edition: Final
Page: 2B
By JAMES ROOS, Herald Music Critic
Memo: SOUTH FLORIDA AFTER DARK / REVIEW

The Jubilate Symphony, a ``rainbow'' orchestra composed of ethnically diverse players led by Dr. Nelson Hall, made an auspicious debut at the Joseph Caleb Auditorium in Liberty City Sunday afternoon, playing rarely heard music by William Grant Still and the Spiritual Heritage Suite by Howard Roberts.

It was an exhilarating concert, a virtual festival of African-inspired dance music and traditional black spirituals, with Hall's high-spirited Jubilate choir, the Miami Choral Society and Coral Gables Senior High's Cavalier Singers also taking part.

And it was the promising start of a venture in interracial performance that South Florida's too-often ethnically divided communities sorely need.

On a purely musical level, it was fascinating to hear Still's 1937 Second Symphony, subtitled Song of a New Race, because it communicated his calm optimism about the future of blacks, following the yearnings and aspirations embodied in his First Symphony of 1931, the so-called Afro-American Symphony. In contrast, this Second Symphony is blander, stylistically slightly more akin to the commercial radio and television music Still composed for America's major networks. But there's a serenity and unmistakable '30s charm about the Second Symphony, which unfurls like silk from a smooth spool.

There are moments its unforced flow needs more dramatic contrast, but there's simply no anger in this music. Hall and his players captured its good-natured character in a mostly clean, assured, well-prepared performance.

This noted choral director conducted with confident competence and authority. And his specially assembled, essentially professional orchestra, of about 60 players included nearly a dozen blacks, plus many Hispanics and white non-Hispanics, mirroring the racially mixed audience of about 450 people who came to hear the group in the 1,000-seat hall.

In fact, the spirit of racial brotherhood that Still once envisioned permeated the concert, ending with Robert's kaleidoscopic musical evocation of black roots. His Spiritual Heritage Suite is a wonderful work, ranging through songs and dances inspired by music of the Cameroon, Nigeria and Burundi, to a large batch of traditional black spirituals saluting musical notables like singers Roland Hayes and Mahalia Jackson. And this performance was ebullient and first-rate in almost every respect, involving, for example, the University of Miami's retiring head of percussion, Fred Wickstrom, doing much of the African drumming, and the fervent singing of the interracial Jubilate soloists, headed by Josef Spencer, a truly ardent tenor.

Timothy Sharp's Miami Choral Society children gave mostly well-meshed performances of several Afro-derived and gospel songs, and the Cavalier Singers provided firm reinforcement for the exuberantly committed Jubilate choir. And Ira L. Everett Jr.'s narration exuded unaffected dignity and eloquence.

There ought to be less blatant amplification, though, for while the Caleb Center auditorium may not have very resonant acoustics for music, the Jubilate soloists have solid, vibrant voices whose individual timbres are spoiled by strident miking.

Now, as the Jubilate Symphony prepares for a May 23 encore featuring different music, including Duke Ellington's The River, the question is: Can it fill those 1,000 seats at the Caleb Center? This African American Concert Series is a marvelous project that deserves nurturing. But to become a community fixture, organizers - including the Miami-Dade Park and Recreation Department - especially must find ways to attract Liberty City families, especially young people, who deserve firsthand exposure to such quality performances of the resilient music blacks have created.

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All archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream Inc., a Knight-Ridder Inc. company.

THE MIAMI HERALD
ORCHESTRA BANDS TOGETHER FOR HARMONY

Sunday, April 25, 1999
Section: Neighbors NE
Edition: Final
Page: 47NE
By DANNY GUEVARA, Special to The Herald

A new multiethnic orchestra hopes to take the black and white notes written on sheet music and send them through the county spreading racial as well as melodic harmony.

Led by Cuban-American director Nelson Hall, the Jubilate Symphony Orchestra, making its debut today, has the goal of broadening the public's access to the arts, while increasing the community's understanding and appreciation of African, Latin and Caribbean-American musical heritage and culture.

``This is not your typical European orchestra,'' said Josef W. Spencer, president of Jubilate, pronounced yoo-bee-lah-tey. ``We wanted the orchestra to be representative of the diverse Miami-Dade community.''

The idea for the orchestra was born in 1995 when the Jubilate Vocal Ensemble, which was started by a group of friends six years ago at the Seventh Day Adventist Church Miami Temple, 9175 SW 44th St., was asked to put a concert together during Black History month.

In Symphonic Celebration, the name of the concert, the Jubilate Vocal Ensemble joined forces with local musicians to treat the audience to a different, unfamiliar combination of rhythms: black compositions.

``Most classic composers are influenced by established patterns,'' said Matt Bonelli, an electric bass player. ``The music by African composers is different because they draw from a different heritage.''

According to Spencer, people really enjoyed the performance and started asking why the group didn't do concerts featuring black composers more often.

That led the ensemble's founders to decide that it was a good time to establish a permanent instrumental group, thus the founding of the orchestra and its mission.

``We needed to have a goal to identify the group,'' said Hall, also a founding member of Jubilate. ``After the MLK concert, we decided that promoting black and spiritual music was our calling.''

Made up of 15 blacks, 25 Hispanics, 20 white non-Hispanics and three Asian Americans, the orchestra will premiere with the inauguration of the African-American Concert Series at 4 p.m. today at the Joseph Caleb Auditorium.

The concert will feature William Grant Still's Symphony No. 2 and Howard Robert's Spiritual Heritage. The Jubilate Vocal Ensemble, the Miami Choral Society and Cavalier Singers of Coral Gables High will perform with the orchestra.

As part of the series, the orchestra will have a second concert May 23, also at the Joseph Caleb Auditorium. Organizers are hoping to increase the number of performances from two to four next year.

``The series is unique because both the Florida Harmonic Symphony and the New World Symphony don't perform a lot of African-American music,'' said Spencer. ``They might do one concert with African-American music.''

The orchestra's founders wanted youths to be part of a professional symphony, so they asked David Eckels, music director of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, to select a few talented high school students for the concert series.

Six high school students were hand-picked by Eckels from a pool of the kids in his symphony that he knew personally. To give students the full experience of a professional gig, Jubilate will pay them the union scale for apprentices - $75 per practice or concert, compared to the $85 to $100 professionals make.

``In the school band, we usually have a semester to practice the music before we put on a concert,'' said Melody Russell, one of the selected students, who attends Coral Reef Senior High. ``We are only going to have three practices for this concert, and I missed the first one.''

The orchestra's future projects include a concert in February 2000 celebrating the Harlem Renaissance, which will be done in collaboration with the Miami Art Museum, and a special performance to celebrate the 100th birthday of late jazz great Duke Ellington as part of the African-American Concert Series next year.

Thanks to the support of Congresswoman Carrie Meek, D-Miami, the orchestra received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It has also received funding from the Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Council, Fifty-over-Fifty - a cultural enrichment group - the Alexander Mcintyre Foundation and the Miami-Dade County Community Foundation.

However, the orchestra has fallen short of its fund-raising goal of $62,000. It has turned to corporations for help, but has not yet received any. Members are hoping to obtain the additional $12,000 needed by the May concert. Those who wish to make donations can call Jubilate treasurer Wayne Anderson at 305-829-1337.

``I encourage Miami-Dade County to come enjoy an art form and learn to appreciate a different culture,'' said Spencer. ``This is a community event designed not for one section, but all of the county; we hope to see an audience that reflects the multicultural composition of the orchestra.''


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