John Legend, Anita Baker Announce Van Wezel Performances

John Legend will make his Sarasota premiere, opening the Van Wezel season, Fri. Oct. 19, 2012 @ 8 PM. Powerhouse Anita Baker makes her appearance Sun. Nov. 18, 2012 @ 7 PM. Tickets go ON SALE this Friday, August 17 at 10 AM.

Recording artist, concert performer and philanthropist John Legend has won nine Grammy awards and was named one of Timemagazine’s 100 most influential people. John launched his career as a session player and vocalist, contributing to best-selling recordings by Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z and Kanye West before recording his own unbroken chain of Top 10 albums -- Get Lifted (2004), Once Again(2006), and Evolver (2008) --each of them reaching #1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop charts. Most recently, John and the band The Roots releasedWake Up! (2010), a compilation of music from the 60's and 70's all with an underlying theme of awareness, engagement and social consciousness which won two Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. The album is highlighted with tracks like "Little Ghetto Boy" by Donny Hathaway and Baby Huey and the Babysitters' "Hard Times." Wake Up! also includes John’s original composition "Shine," which won a Grammy award for Best R&B Song and is featured in Oscar award winner Davis Guggenheim’s domestic education reform documentary Waiting for ‘Superman.’ This season, John Starred as a judge on the ABC hit Duets with Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Nettles (of Sugarland) and the famed Robin Thicke.

Anita Baker—eight-time Grammy Award winner, composer, producer, mother and all-around

superstar brings her romantic “fireside love songs” and sophisticated grooves to the Van Wezel. This amazing songstress with a bell-clear alto has a mighty R&B songbook filled with soulfulness. Classic gems such as “Sweet Love” and “Giving You The Best That I’ve Got,” and masterpieces such as “Just Because,” “Fairy Tales,” “No More Tears,” “Been So Long,” “Lead Me Into Love,” “Body and Soul” and “I Apologize,” are sure to inspire one of the most moving performances of the season! 

For more information and to buy tickets, contact the Van Wezel Box office at (941) 953-3368 or log onto www.vanwezel.org.