RALEIGH – This June – as part of the 25th anniversary season of the Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Theater in the Museum Park – the North Carolina Museum of Art will host a special weekend of activities and performances on June 16.

Activities will feature Grammy, Stellar and Dove award-winning artists; a screening of the documentary Summer of Soul; and kicking off the new Jazz Series at NCMA.

The performances are part of the Museum’s Outdoor Performing Arts and Films Series, presented by First Citizens Bank.

“Our campus is alive this summer with music, movies and dance,” said Museum Director Valerie Hillings. “We are thrilled to host our second annual weekend on June 19 and launch a new series celebrating jazz music outdoors in the museum grounds.”

The Juneteenth Weekend Juneteenth Joy: A Celebration of Freedom and Gospel Music will take place at 7 p.m. on June 17. It will feature Grammy and Dove nominated artist Kelontae Gavin; Grammy and Stellar Award-winning singers Kierra Sheard and Le’Andria Johnson; and Grammy-, Stellar- and Dove-winning gospel music legends Bishop Hezekiah Walker and Fred Hammond.

Tickets are on sale now from $50 for museum members to $55 for non-members.

Kelontae Gavin

Whether you know 21-year-old gospel music sensation Kelontae Gavin as a viral “Cafeteria Singer,” a Billboard entertainer, or a Stellar and Dove Award nominee, chances are you don’t know his full story. Gavin’s debut album, “The Higher Experience”, was released in April 2018. It debuted at number two on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart.

“No Ordinary Worship” spent nearly a year on the Gospel Airplay charts. In 2019, Gavin was nominated for four Stellar Awards and nominated for a Dove Award for New Artist of the Year.

Kierra Sheard

Kierra Sheard is no stranger to innovation. After all, the young dynamo grew up with two gospel barrier-breakers as role models: mother Karen Clark Sheard, a member of the legendary Clark Sisters, and grandmother/Clark matriarch Mattie Moss Clark.

Now, the Grammy and Stellar award-winning artist is back with her first project in five years. Released on family label Karew Entertainment, the highly anticipated album has already produced hits “Don’t Judge Me”, featuring Missy Elliott, and “It Keeps Happening”.

Le’Andria Johnson

Grammy-winning artist Le’Andria Johnson has taken the gospel music scene by storm since being crowned the season three winner of BET’s Sunday Best in 2010.

In 2011, Johnson received his first Grammy Award for Best Christian Gospel/Contemporary Music Performance for his debut single, “Jesus”. In 2019, she released the prolific song “Deliver Me” with Grammy and Stellar award-winning producer and artist Donald Lawrence. They scored a No. 1 Billboard hit with “This Is My Exodus (Deliver Me)”.

Hezekiah Walker

Hezekiah Walker’s signature sound has set an international standard in gospel music. Multi-Grammy award-winning, newly inducted Gospel Music Hall of Famer Walker continues to uplift the masses with inspirational songs that focus on maintaining faith and resolving life’s daunting moments. He won multiple music awards and two North Carolina Museum of Art Celebrates Anniversary Outdoor Performing Arts and Film Season with Juneteenth Weekend and New Series Jazz at NCMA three Grammys for Best Gospel Album for Live in Atlanta at Morehouse College in 1994 and Love Is Live! in 2001.

Fred Hammond

For more than 40 years, music lovers around the world have known Grammy Award-winning recording artist Fred Hammond as a gifted singer, songwriter, musician, producer and arranger. But as his peers and followers have so respectfully stated, he is unquestionably the architect behind the creation of a genre of gospel music called Urban Praise and Worship. As a result, Hammond has become one of the most respected names in the music industry. Essence magazine (2017 Collector’s Edition) named him one of the 50 Greatest Male Singers of All Time.