Berklee's Signature Series Presents Gospel Extravaganza 2024

Berklee's Signature Series Presents Gospel Extravaganza 2024 Gospel singer and composer Bishop Hezekiah Walker will be among this year's inductees into the Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

By

Colette Greenstein

April 2, 2024

Bishop Hezekiah Walker

Image courtesy of the artist

Berklees Signature Series will celebrate the power of gospel music at Gospel Extravaganza 2024 on Thursday, May 2, at 8:00 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center.

Directed by Dennis Montgomery III B.M. '88, an associate professor in Berklee's Ensemble Department, the concert will include a performance by Berklee's Reverence Gospel Choir and Overjoyed, and will feature a special guest performance by Bishop Hezekiah Walker, a two-time Grammy Award-winning gospel singer, composer, and choir leader.

Gospel Extravaganza 2024 will also mark the second year of the Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame induction of several individuals who have made a lasting impact on gospel music and culture. Hosted by Africana Studies Visiting Scholar in Residence and the inaugural inductee, Dr. Teresa Jackson, this year's inductees include Bishop Walker, who is a visiting artist-in-residence with the Africana Studies Division this academic year. Reverend Dr. Milton Biggham, a songwriter, producer, singer, pastor, and record executive known for starting the Miami Mass and the Mississippi Mass choirs; Berklee alumna Lisa Harrigan 83, the founder of Berklee's Reverence Gospel Choir; and Ms. Evelyn D. Lee, an educator and founder of the Voices of Renaissance Chorus, will also be inducted into the Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Now in our second year of producing the Gospel Extravaganza, Africana Studies at Berklee is more committed than ever to lead the charge not only in the performance of gospel music but in ongoing curricular and cocurricular engagement both on campus and beyond, says Emmett G. Price III, dean of the Africana Studies Division. In addition to inducting our second cohort into the Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame we are hiring a gospel music specialist to join our faculty, and we are expanding our course offerings focused on gospel music through the lens of artistry, culture, and industry. With all of this, the most exhilarating experience is still watching our tremendously talented students offer the world a message of hope from the stage alongside a gospel music giant such as Bishop Hezekiah Walker!

In a career spanning more than 30 years in the music industry, Bishop Walker was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2016, and is a two-time Grammy Award winner for the albums Love Is Live! (Best Gospel Choir or Chorus Album) and Live In Atlanta at Morehouse College (Best Gospel Album by a Choir or Chorus). The native New Yorker is the author of the faith-based and motivational book Destiny: Dream It, Declare It, Do It. Bishop Walker also founded the Love Fellowship Tabernacle churches in Brooklyn, New York, and in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, serving as the pastor for both.

The Signature Series concert is produced by Emmett G. Price III, Tracy Gibbs, and Dennis Montgomery. Admission is $15-20 in advance and $20-25 day of show. Tickets for the seated event are available online and at the Berklee box office.

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