About the Program
The upcoming music recording project "Brandon Felder: Mosaic Intersections of Sound" provides a musical story of hope and possibilities. A Mosaic is generally used to describe Visual Art. Furthermore, our lives can imitate art in that our lives have been (and still develop into) a mosaic of many eclectic broken pieces that when formed and fused together create a beautiful masterpiece of cohesive sound.
Human tragedy is not uncommon, and 2020 amplified suffering through the tremendous loss of life and economic crisis due to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. But through it all, there is great resiliency; what was thought to be broken has now been re-formed in a beautiful and artful mosaic.
Mosaic Intersections of Sound demonstrates the relationship between sermonic prose and musical liturgy, and their impact upon personal and spiritual healing. Sermonic text and well-known Christian music (hymns, anthems, spirituals, gospel) are superimposed creating a new sonic experience. These “Sermonic Songversations” present a merging of spoken word and music to facilitate meditative and centering moments. In our centering and meditative moments, the broken pieces of ourselves can be re-formed, and be made whole again. The pieces of our personal mosaic tell the story of what broke us, but the reformation tells the story of what made us whole.
Much like the Japanese practice of kintsukuroi, the sermonic prose and musical liturgy hold us together- making us more beautiful than we were.
PROGRAM
selected collection of original compositions and arrangements by Brandon Felder found on his upcoming album, to be released March 27, 2022
Brandon Felder
piano
Brandon Felder is a multifaceted and passionate musician, producer, composer and educator. Felder earned his undergraduate degree from Howard University in Music Education and Master's Degree from University of Maryland College Park in Music Education where his thesis project was published. Felder was recently recognized in 2018 as one of the Forty under 40 in Prince George's County (Maryland) within the area of Arts and Humanities.
Mr. Felder serves as Fine Arts Co-Director at the SHABACH! Christian Academy (Landover MD). Felder previously served as Performing Arts Department Chair at Largo High School where the program earned distinctions such as 2015 GRAMMY® Signature School Award Semifinalist, 2016 GRAMMY® Grant Recipient and 2017 NAMM® Music Merit School Awardee. Felder was also executive producer for the Largo High School Choir album project "Rejoice!" (November 2017) and made history as the first high school to reach #7 on Billboard Gospel Music Charts and presented a CD release concert at the Kennedy Center for 1150 attendees (December 2017).
Felder actively serves within the community, through his private piano instructional studio and has served the sacred music community holding posts at Metropolitan Baptist Church, Woodstream Church, Alfred Street Baptist Church, Reid Temple AME Church, and First Baptist Church of Glenarden. Felder also served as the Artistic Associate Director and Musical Director for the Washington Performing Arts Society (Men, Women and Children of the Gospel Division) for numerous years.
Felder is a Governor on the GRAMMY Recording Academy Washington DC Chapter Board and serves as the DC Education Committee Chairperson on the GRAMMY Board. Felder has been afforded the opportunity to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra, Shania Twain, the late Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Smallwood, Walter and Edwin Hawkins, Stephen Hurd, Kurt Carr, Donald Lawrence and many others. Felder performed for President Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter and Oprah Winfrey and served as musical director for the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia for Black History Month (February 2013). Brandon is constantly seeking to lead young people (and the young at heart) to experience music in a way they never have before. Brandon is the devoted husband of LaTanya Felder, and they are the proud parents of two daughters Cadence and Olivia.
