Berklee's Africana Studies to Host Gospel Extravaganza 2025

Berklee's Africana Studies to Host Gospel Extravaganza 2025 The Signature Series event will celebrate over 40 years of gospel music at Berklee.

By

Colette Greenstein

March 28, 2025

Students performed at the Gospel Extravaganza at the Berklee Performance Center on May 2, 2024.

Image by Omari Spears

The Africana Studies Division at Berklee will present the Signature Series concert Gospel Extravaganza 2025-Through the Years: A Celebration of Berklee's Reverence Gospel Ensemble on Thursday, May 1, at 8:00 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center.

The one-night event showcases Berklees Reverence Gospel Ensemble, honoring over 40 years of gospel music excellence at Berklee. The event will also feature a special retrospective performance by the Reverence Reunion Gospel Choir, celebrating the rich legacy of the program.

This year's Gospel Extravaganza will commemorate the rich history and tremendous cultural legacy of gospel music at Berklee, says Emmett G. Price III, founding dean of the Africana Studies Division. This unique gathering will be a night of exceptional music grounded in hope that will bring the Berklee community and our partners together in celebration of this beloved Black art form.

Gospel Extravaganza 2025 will also mark the third year of the Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame, which honors artists, community members, and alumni who have made a lasting impact on gospel music and culture. This year's honorees will be Dr. Lenora Helm Hammonds '82, dean of the Professional Education Division at Berklee, a founding member of the Reverence Gospel Ensemble, and a two-time Fulbright senior music specialist; voice professor Jerome Kyles, who served two decades as the minister of music at Morning Star Baptist Church in Boston and starred in the TLC docuseries Trial By Choir; and Major Johnson-Finley BM '06, (also known as MAJOR), who was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for his song HONEST in 2018.

Past recipients include two-time Grammy Award-winning gospel singer, composer, and choir leader Bishop Hezekiah Walker; Grammy-nominated choir director, songwriter, and producer Dr. Judith Christie McAllister; and Reverend Milton Biggham, a songwriter, producer, singer, pastor, and record executive known for starting the Miami Mass and the Mississippi Mass choirs in 2024. In 2023, Dr. Teresa Jackson, a respected pioneer, scholar, historian, and journalist in the field of gospel music and ministry, and Kurt Carr, a four-time Stella Award-winning artist, were inducted into the inaugural Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

The Signature Series concert is produced by Price; Tracy Gibbs, director of operations and programs for Africana Studies; and Dennis Montgomery III, a professor in the Ensemble Department and a 2023 Berklee Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee.

Admission is $15/$20 in advance and $20/$25 day of show with discounted admission for Berklee students. Tickets are available online and at the Berklee Performance Center box office, located at 136 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston.

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