Fans of gospel music are in for what organizers describe as "a rare opportunity" at Brenau University March 29-30 with the Brenau Gospel Experience.
The two-day event will include an instructive panel, songwriting workshop and two evening performances from special guests Karen Peck and New River, Jeff and Sheri Easter, Madison and Shannon Easter, and Ty Scott King, along with the Brenau Gospel Choir and Brenau music education student Arabia Jones, winner of the 2018 Brenau Gospel Experience soloist audition.
Brenau alumna Karen Peck and her group New River are a 2018 Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee, are winners of numerous Absolutely Gospel Album of the Year awards and have five consecutive No. 1 songs in southern gospel music. They are based in Gainesville.
Jeff and Sheri Easter, also a Brenau alumna, are a southern gospel group led by the husband-and wife-duo. Together, they are a six-time Gospel Music Association Dove Award winner. Their son and daughter-in-law Madison and Shannon Easter are also in the gospel music business. Madison Easter has repeatedly been named Absolutely Gospel's Musician of the Year, and his talented singer-songwriter wife Shannon Easter is also an alumna of Brenau University.
Finally, Ty Scott King is an award-winning artist who aims to strike a balance between poetry and hip hop in her music. Also a published author and accomplished speaker, she has performed on major television networks such as BET and TV One, in front of international audiences and at the Pentagon.
The panel will discuss where arts and well-being meet and will be led by Brenau Chair of the Department of Music Barbara Steinhaus on March 29, with Paul Lennard, director of the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Program at Emory University; Sandra Brim, associate professor of English at Brenau University; Audrey Milo-Turner, retired associate professor of education and counseling at Clemson University; and Amy Jacques, adjunct instructor of dance and psychology at Brenau University.
