Kimmel Center Hosts Annual SOULFUL CHRISTMAS Holiday Concert Tonight

The Kimmel Center has announced the return of A Soulful Christmas, an inspiring, uplifting communal gathering of regional choristers, entitled The Philadelphia Heritage Chorale, who will perform holiday spirituals and gospel favorites in Verizon Hall tonight, December 16, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. Special guest Grammy© Award winner, Edwin Hawkins, will perform his super-hit "Oh Happy Day," and Christmas classic, "The First Noel." Hawkins will be honored with a lifetime achievement award on stage presented by Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco.

This energetic evening will launch the holiday season with a meaningful gathering of regional choristers from various churches. The Philadelphia Heritage Chorale, led by artistic and music director J. Donald Dumpson, features members from the A.M.E. 1st District Mass Choir, Enon Tabernacle Mass Choir, Bright Hope Baptist Church Mass Choir, The Pennsylvania Heritage Chorale, Citywide Praise Dancers, and Deliverance Evangelistic Church.

The holiday celebration also features the angelic voices of over 100 youth mass choir members from local churches performing two selections with both Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Keystone State Boychoir from the Philadelphia area, and beyond. Their selections will be led by conductor Steven Fischer.

The evening culminates with 300 choristers convening on stage for a moving, climactic performance of Alolphus Hailstork's "Shout for Joy," including brass, tympani musicians and the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ.

Tickets are available from $25-$45 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, at the Kimmel Center box office, Broad & Spruce Streets (open 10 am to 6 pm daily).

Oakland, California native, Edwin Hawkins, is a trailblazing force behind the evolution of the contemporary Gospel sound with modern, R&B influences. He remains best known for his 1969 Grammy© Award winning classic "Oh Happy Day," one of the biggest gospel hits of all time and a major pop radio smash that has sold over seven million copies. A skilled pianist, Hawkins and Betty Watson co-founded the North Carolina State Youth Choir, drawing on the finest soloists from throughout the Bay Area to build the 50-member ensemble for the release of LP Let Us Go into the House of the Lord (1968), which featured "Oh Happy Day." Thereafter, Edwin Hawkins and his choir, renamed The Hawkins Singers, received three additional Grammys for Every Man Wants to be Free (1972), Wonderful (1980), and If You Love Me (1983). Hawkins founded the Edwin Hawkins Music and Arts Seminar in 1982, an annual week-long gospel convention culminating with assembled mass choir performance, which has since grown to include choir members from the United States, Europe, Japan and beyond.

Serving as the conductor of The Philadelphia Heritage Chorale, J. Donald Dumpson is also concert choir director at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and at Cheyney University. He also serves as artistic director at the Community College of Philadelphia, where he conducts workshops, and as minister of music at Bright Hope Baptist Church.