Bronx, NY—Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is proud to present MCDONALD’S GOSPELFEST with the legendary SHIRLEY CAESAR, DOTTIE PEOPLES, and BYRON CAGE on Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 8pm.
McDonald’s Gospelfest 2024,”The Revival Tour”, promises to be the biggest Gospel event in the country as we celebrate 41 years of spreading the good news through music, arts, and entertainment. This year’s Gospelfest at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts features some of the best in the gospel music industry such as, Shirley Caesar, Dottie Peoples, and Byron Cage. Along with an inspirational word from Bishop Peggy Smalls and tri-state area gospel talents, choirs, and praise dancers.
A. Curtis Farrow, producer and director of Mcdonald’s Gospelfest has worked with McDonald’s for 26 years, producing this phenomenal celebration of life. He has received three Emmy awards for producing and directing McDonald’s Gospelfest along with fourteen nominations, crediting everything in his life to his strong belief in God.
Shirley Caesar, known as the First Lady of Gospel, began her professional music career in 1958 at the age of nineteen, when she approached Albertina Walker about joining The Caravans, one of the most popular gospel groups at that time. In 1961, Caesar began her solo career, recording the sermonette “Hallelujah ‘Tis Done,” which earned her a national reputation. She began to fulfill her calling as a pastor, establishing the Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, and helping the needy in her community through founding the Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministries.
In 1971, she won her first Grammy Award for her recording of “Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man”, and in 1975 her recording of the song “No Charge” became an instant hit and her first gold record. In 1977 Caesar released her debut album First Lady. Throughout the 1970’s and 1980s Caesar went on to create several of her biggest hits “God’s Got It All in Control”, “Hold My Mule”,and “He’s Working It Out for You”.
She has performed with Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston, and acted in movies, ‘Fighting Temptations’ and ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love.’ In the 1990s, Caesar was dubbed the “First Lady of Gospel”, and in 2000 was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. In 2015, Caesar performed for President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama at the White House, along with Aretha Franklin. In 2016, Caesar was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Throughout her career she has received Eleven Grammy Awards, Fourteen Stellar Awards, and Fifteenth Dove Awards.
Dorothy “Dottie” Peoples is one of the most honored gospel vocalists. Her signature song, “On Time God,” is a modern gospel classic, and it not only reached #1 on the gospel charts, but swept the 1995 Stellar Awards (Album, Song of the Year, Female Vocalist, Choir), leading to Peoples winning the prestigious Stellar Award, James Cleveland Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1991 she debuted with two albums, “Is It Worth It All?” and “Surely God Is Able”. Peoples has had several notable performances including her performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1996 Olympics, and performance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In 2000 she won the Soul Train Award, Best Gospel Album for “God Can & God Will”, along with receiving Four Stellar Awards, and Three Grammy Nominations.
Bryon Cage, known as the “Prince of Praise,” has made his mark on gospel music as a respected minister of music and through a series of chart-topping live albums and radio singles, including “The Presence of the Lord,” “Royalty,” “Broken, But I’m Healed” and “I Will Bless the Lord”. In 1995, Cage launched his professional recording career by signing with Atlanta International Records. In 2004, Cage received The Soul Train Award for Best Gospel Album for “The Prince of Praise”, along with seven Stellar Awards, and one Grammy nomination throughout his career.
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is on the campus of Lehman College/CUNY at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468. Tickets for MCDONALD’S GOSPELFEST on Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 8pm ($100, $75, $65, $50, $35) can be purchased by calling the Lehman Center box office at 718-960-8833 (Monday through Friday, 10am–5pm, and beginning at 4pm on the day of the concert), or through online access at https://www.lehmancenter.org/events/mcdonalds-gospelfest. Lehman Center is accessible by #4 or D train to Bedford Park Blvd. and is off the Saw Mill River Parkway and the Major Deegan Expressway.
