Songs of hope, a captivating rhythm, the Christmas atmosphere. The unbridled power of CHRISTMAS SOUL comes back to Ravenna with 4 gospel concerts – on Saturday 28th, Sunday 29th and Tuesday 31st December in Piazza del Popolo, on Wednesday 1st January 2024 at the Dante Alighieri Theatre.
International artists from various countries will make Christmas holidays in Ravenna more magical, thanks to the exploration of the most spiritual and intense sphere of black music. Rhythms and armonies similar to the ones of soul, blues, R&B and funk music.
Concerts that are able to make everyone feel engaged, that seize and communicate the sense and the intimate spirit of Nativity.
PROGRAMME
SATURDAY 28th DECEMBER
LEBRON JOHNSON (NIG/ITA)
Piazza del Popolo
Time: 6 pm
LeBron Johnson is a singer with a voice once powerful and refined, endowed with a warm and persuasive timbre. The music of the band – consisting of Andrea Pititto on guitar, Alberto Pavesi on drums, Filippo Romano on organ/keyboards and Davide Medicina on bass – is pure contamination between funk, soul and blues, with a vein of “independent music”.
Out of this fusion comes a modern sound, an intense sound steeped in groove and feeling with original songs and a few covers of big names, such as Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Nina Simone and today’s artists like Tom Misch and Black Pumas.
SUNDAY 29th DECEMBER
LEON BEAL JOYFUL GOSPEL CHOIR (USA)
Piazza del Popolo
Time: 6 pm
Clapping hands, tapping feet, soul-searching, heart-opening: Joyful is a collection of highly talented musicians with a mission to spread the good news of faith and Christian inspiration for more than four decades.
Pioneers of what has been called “contemporary Gospel”, they explore every area of the music that has been the staple of the religious community and the African American church in particular.
TUESDAY 31st DECEMBER
SPIRIT OF NEW ORLEANS GOSPEL CHOIR (USA)
Piazza del Popolo
Time: 11 pm
An original, large and spectacular ensemble composed of some of the best musicians from the gospel groups of Baptist churches in New Orleans and Louisiana. The chorale is rooted in the most genuine and intense tradition of the religious music of the blacks of America, and thanks to the intense vocal and interpretative skills it succeeds in generating an atmosphere of joyful and fraternal union with all those present.
Their concert is of great impact and remarkable artistic quality – a show in which Louisiana’s exuberance, warmth, and musical tradition explodes.
WEDNESDAY 1st JANUARY
THE BRONX GOSPEL CHOIR (USA)
Dante Alighieri Theatre
Time: 11.30 am
The Bronx Gospel Choir beautifully traces an innovatice and never predictable gospel-pop spiritual formula, confirming the goodness and valuable interpretive gifts of each of the individual vocalists.
A concert that reveals all its authentic beauty song after song. Talented, multifaceted artists, natives of the Bronx, bring their voices to the forefront with the new artistic project where among the many musical colours, they often find interpretations of gospel in which the repartee between the parts – chorus-main voice and leader-musicians – take the lion’s share.
Bookings: from Monday 16th December at www.teatroalighieri.org and at the Tourist Information Office in Piazza San Francesco.
