Good Noise Closes Season on High Note in SOUL GOSPEL

Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir (GNVGC) wraps up its season with SOUL GOSPEL, a concert tying two influential & inspiring genres, May 28, 3pm & 7:30pm at ChristChurchCathedral. Vancouver’s own dynamo soul songstress, Dawn Pemberton, shares her rich and robust voice alongside the combined 140 singers of Good Noise and world touring White Rock Children’s Choir. 

“While gospel is our specialty, we love to explore related repertoire. Soul – which is derived from gospel – merges religious and secular sensibilities, and sees audiences grooving with fervent call & response, improvisation, and uplifting vocals,” says Gail Suderman, Artistic Director, Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir. “This sensual music made famous by such icons as Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Ray Charles inspires intense feeling. Time and again we see soul make a comeback, and incredible musicians like our guest artist, Dawn Pemberton, are part of the revival.”
 
Hailed as “the new queen of Canadian soul” by Pop Forecast, Pemberton’s star is rising thanks to her debut solo album, Say Somethin. The record has been praised by critics across the country – described as “sumptuous”, “funky”, and “well refined”. In 2015 it won the Western Canadian Music Award for Urban Album of the Year.
 
As a staple of the West Coast music scene, Pemberton often lends her voice to local lauded bands, lighting up Vancouver venues with her vivacity and charm. In addition to her own performance career, she helms the Roots ‘N Wings women’s choir, conducts workshops & private classes, and has served as instructor to youth at the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. An in-demand collaborator, Pemberton has shared the stage with illustrious stars including Maceo Parker, John Lee Sanders, and Dutch Robinson, and recently toured with celebrated blues duo, The Harpoonist and The Axe Murderer.
 
At SOUL GOSPEL, Pemberton will be heard alone and alongside Good Noise and the Ad Libitum Concert vocalists of the White Rock Children’s Choir (WRCC). Nearing its 20^th anniversary, WRCC is known for emotionally charged and colourful performances. The Ad Libitum Concert Choir, ranging in age from 11 to 17, have sung for Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, toured as far as South Africa, Italy, and Mexico, and been invited to such prestigious venues as St. Peter’s Basilica, Canterbury Cathedral, and Carnegie Hall. The exuberant ensemble will perform in SOUL GOSPEL as part of the second annual Good Noise VIP Young Artist program, a youth initiative to foster gospel music education & appreciation throughout the Lower Mainland.
 
Good Noise audiences will undoubtedly sway and swoon to a program of glorious gospel and soothing soul. The song list includes Have a Talk with God from Stevie Wonder’s landmark album, Songs in the Key of Life, the GRAMMY Award-winning single Ain’t No Need to Worry by Anita Baker and the Winans, the gospel-inspired cross-over hit, I Believe in You by Bob Dylan, and a stunning new arrangement of Thomas A. Dorsey’s The Lord Will Make a Way.