June 19, 2008 – The Memorial Moravian Church will present "For the Love of Music," a recital featuring soprano Beverly Owens and Lonieta Cornwall. The concert will also feature the choirs of the Memorial Moravian Church, the Youth Steel Orchestra and Kyle Mills on trumpet. This event will be held at 6 p.m., on Sunday, June 29, at the Memorial Moravian Church, Main Street (next to Diamond Barrel Restaurant). Admission is $20.
Beverly Owens, soprano, is a native of New Jersey, who frequently appears in opera, oratorio and recitals in the metropolitan area. She has performed in many distinguished concert halls including New York's Merkin Hall where she was featured in a program of French melodie'.
In addition to her work as a performer, she is director of music at the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, N.J., where she maintains an active teaching schedule and is a founding member of Women in a Chord, an a capella vocal trio. The singer holds degrees from Jersey City State College, New York University and Westminster Choir College.
Loñieta Aurora Thompson Cornwall, pianist, organist, choral director, liturgist and arranger/composer, is a native of New York, and a versatile performer and educator. Currently, she is assistant professor of music at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she serves in a variety of capacities as director of choral studies, teaching courses in theory, conducting and piano. Cornwall is the director of music at First Reformed Church of Cary, N.C. Before relocating to North Carolina, she was the organist at several New York churches, including Abyssinian Baptist Church, Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church in Harlem, and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hollis, Queens. She is presently minister of music and liturgy for Franklinton Seventh-day Adventist Church in Franklinton, N.C.
Cornwall is a frequent lecturer, clinician and facilitator on Music in the Black Church and Useful Keyboard Skills for The Protestant Worship Service. She has composed and arranged several compositions for the solo voice, choir and organ.
In 2006, she was awarded a doctorate in education from Teacher's College, Columbia University, in New York. Her dissertation focused on the development of the African American art song.
For information, call 776-0066.
