EVDOL 20 - Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul

Damien Sneed
In 1960 at age 18, Aretha Franklin, the daughter of famed Rev. C.L. Franklin, started her career as a recording artist In 1967, Respect became her first chart-topping single. By the end of that decade, she had earned the title ‘Queen of Soul.’ Aretha won 18 Grammys, had 112 singles on the Billboard charts, and sold over 75 million records worldwide. She was the first female performer inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and remains the most charted female artist in history. Aretha was active in the fight for civil rights and women’s rights, supporting causes, speaking up, and performing at benefits. . Following her death in 2018 at age 76, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded Franklin a special citation “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.” This online lecture tracks her career and the indelible legacy she leaves behind.

Biography: As a multi-genre recording artist and instrumentalist, Damien Sneed is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has worked with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B legends, including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman, which he is featured on Norman’s final recording, Bound For The Promised Land on Albany Records. He also worked with Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Brandie Inez Sutton and many others. Sneed has served as music director for Grammy Award-winning gospel artists The Clark Sisters, Richard Smallwood, Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker, Marvin Sapp, Karen Clark Sheard, Dorinda Clark-Cole and Kim Burrell, among others. Sneed is a 2020 Dove Award winner and 2021 NAACP Image Award winner for his work as a featured producer and writer on the Clark Sisters’ newest project, “The Return”, released on March 13, 2020. damiensneed.com

5 weeks

Tuesdays 8–9:30pm ET

October 1–29

Online Only

$255