“One of America’s most celebrated gospel groups” (NPR) and 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship recipients, The Legendary Ingramettes will perform their family favorites sprinkled with uplifting Christmas music at the Hylton Center (12/3) along with a special guest appearance by local students in the Manassas Park High School Chamber Singers. Richmond’s “first family of gospel” was formed six decades ago by “Mama” Maggie Ingram, who found inspiration in Black gospel male quartets of the 1940s and 50s. Ingram broke new ground creating her female-driven quartet. With the spirit of a Sunday morning service, the ensemble is now led by Ingram’s daughter Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller, granddaughter Cheryl Maroney Yancey, daughter-in-law Carrie Jackson, and goddaughter Valerie Stewart. The Legendary Ingramettes inspire audiences into a gospel fervor wherever they perform. The Hylton Center is also excited to welcome this vibrant group as a 2023–2024 Artist-in Residence.
“The Legendary Ingramettes are thrilled to be getting to know the George Mason community and to share our story and music. We are a family band and hope that by the end of this residency, our family has expanded tenfold to include the students and community that we will be able to meet, engage, and sometimes even sing with!”—Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller
As an Artist-in-Residence, the artists will work with the community through classes and workshops surrounding their Hylton Center performance, which includes the following engagement highlights:
- Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller will join Josh Kohn, associate director at the Center for Cultural Vibrancy, for an evening with Mason Arts Management students. The conversation will focus on how to make the leap to larger performance venues, the challenges of presenting spiritual music to secular audiences, the trials the group has endured over its long and important history, and what the future holds for one of America's great gospel powerhouse bands.
- Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller, Cheryl Maroney Yancey, Carrie Jackson, and keyboardist Patrick Newby will be joined by Jon Lohman, Center for Cultural Vibrancy founder and executive director, and will perform a lunchtime concert for residents of senior living care facility Potomac Place in Woodbridge, VA. The same artists will visit George Mason University’s “Public Folklore” course on Mason’s Fairfax campus, taught by Mason Folklore Program director Prof. Lisa Gilman.
- Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller, Cheryl Maroney Yancey, Carrie Jackson, and keyboardist Patrick Newby will visit the Manassas Park High School Chamber Singers for a special workshop in preparation for their guest appearance with The Ingramettes at the Hylton Center on December 3.
- The group will be joined by Jon Lohman, Center for Cultural Vibrancy founder and executive director for a lecture and demonstration at the Hylton Center with Mason’s Lifelong Learning Institute where they will discuss the important role of Black gospel music in the attainment of civil rights in the American south.
- Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller will join moderator William Lake, Jr., Dewberry School of Music director of Concert Band and professor for the Artist-Activist Speaker Series, an initiative of ARCAM (Anti-Racist Collaborative Arts at Mason). This series is a free, public opportunity for the Mason community to engage in dialogue around creative process, activism, and racism, and features nationally renowned artists.
- Later that evening, the artists will visit the Mason School of Integrative Studies’ “Black Feminist Theory” course, taught by Professor Wendi Manuel-Scott.
Get your tickets today for The Legendary Ingramettes’ uplifting and joyous Hylton Center performance on December 3, plus enjoy watching this NEA National Heritage Fellows Tribute video honoring this talented group:
Learn more about the Hylton Center’s Artist-in Residence program and how these residencies create spaces for transformational experiences to happen.