Seth Boyden Benefit Concert Will Feature Legendary Gospel Musician

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Legendary gospel singer, songwriter and producer Reverend Milton Biggham – a parent of a child at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood - will host an educational concert of historic and contemporary music titled “The Story of Gospel: A Unique American Art Form,” at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 26, in the Columbia High School Auditorium.

The concert will benefit Seth Boyden Elementary School, according to a news release.

Biggham will lead a choir of 20 voices and bring the audience on a journey through gospel music history in three movements: spirituals, traditional gospel, and contemporary gospel.

According to event organizers, the concert will “highlight the American origins of the music and its critical role in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality, from its roots in slave spirituals to its flourishing in the 1950s onward to its continued popularity.”

During the concert, the Seth Boyden Chorus will perform a medley of spirituals directed by school music teacher Leah Van Doornik.

According to event organizers:

“In over 40 years in the music industry, Biggham has composed more than 500 songs, including the Top 10 gospel hits “I’m Blessed” and “What He’s Done for Me.” He won Grammys for producing Rev. James Cleveland’s albums “Lord, Let Me Be an Instrument” (1980) and “Having Church” (1990), both on the Savoy label, which Biggham himself ran in the 1980s. A Georgia native, he founded the Georgia Mass Choir in 1983 and directed it in the 1996 Disney movie “The Preacher’s Wife” with Whitney Houston, for which he also served as Gospel Music Consultant. With Biggham as principal singer, the Georgia Mass Choir received a Grammy nomination in 1995 for Best Gospel Album and performed at the 1996 Olympics. Biggham produced the 2001 Lou Rawls solo album “I’m Blessed” and is credited with discovering singers Kirk Franklin and Donnie McClurkin, both of whom are currently on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart. He has been Senior Pastor of the Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church in Newark since 1993.”

Biggham is also a Seth Boyden parent. His son, Courage, is a second-grader at the school.

“Imagine the PTA’s thrill when we learned that this gospel music celebrity was the father of a student and that he would donate his time and talents to a benefit concert,” enthused PTA co-president Rachel Fisher.

The Vanessa Pollock Team of Keller Williams Midtown Direct Realty is the event’s major sponsor.

Tickets are $10 for children under 12 and $15 for adults, and can be purchased online here or at the door.

Photo: YouTube screenshot

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