Andrew Craig’s joyful Gospel Christmas returns to River Run

November 27, 2014

Guelph, ON November 27, 2014 – Andrew Craig’s Gospel Christmas, a joy-filled holiday favourite, returns to River Run Centre’s Main Stage on Saturday, December 13 at 8 p.m. Each year Craig assembles a choir comprised of some of the finest gospel voices in Canada, and conducts them as they perform soul stirring, seasonally inspired music. The concert is presented as part of the Richardson GMP Music Series.

Guelph resident Andrew Craig is the former host of CBC Radio’s Canada Live. A graduate of St. Michael’s and York University, Craig is held in high esteem as a performer, arranger and conductor. The Live Music Report describes him as “a supreme musician for our modern age, fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz and new age genres.” Joining Craig for this year’s Christmas extravaganza will be soloists Jackie Richardson, Christopher Lowe, Selena Evangeline and Nicole Brooks.

In 2006 Andrew Craig mounted his first Gospel Christmas concert as a one-off project. The show was a huge success, and has since become a CBC television special, and a highly anticipated, sell-out, annual event for audiences in Southern Ontario. Holiday standards like, Little Drummer Boy and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen are interpreted with electrifying gospel-style. Audiences can expect to hear renditions of popular Christmas classics including O Come All Ye Faithful as well as the South African Zulu Carol and the quintessentially Canadian Huron Carol.

The blending of traditional and classical music with lively, soul-stirring gospel arrangements perfectly embody Andrew Craig’s own musical journey. A Toronto native, he describes himself as having been raised with a ‘dual musical education’. By day, he was absorbing the works of the European classical masters while attending St. Michael’s Choir School; by night and on weekends, his mother’s stereo fed him the works of the African-American jazz, soul, blues, gospel, funk, rhythm & blues, Caribbean calypso and reggae masters. This musical immersion eventually led Andrew to continue his studies at university, where he expanded his palette to include contemporary improvisation, South Indian classical music, electronic music, and a host of other influences.

Tickets for this performance start at $34 for adults, and $32 for students and seniors and $20 for youth. $5 eyeGO tickets are available for high school students with valid ID. $20 uGO tickets are available to university and college students with valid ID. Tickets are available at the River Run Box Office at 519-763-3000, or online at riverrun.ca/andrew-craigs-gospel-christmas

FOR INFORMATION

Ella Pauls | Manager of Cultural Development
Culture & Tourism| Community & Social Services
City of Guelph

519-822-1260 extension 2589
[email protected]

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