NQC & With Christian Music Presenters Team With MidAmerica Productions To Present Festival At Famed Carnegie Hall

Louisville, KY - The National Quartet Convention and Christian Music Presenters announced on Wednesday, September 13, during a joint press conference, plans to partner with MidAmerica Productions to present the first ever American Gospel Music Festival at Carnegie Hall. The event is expected to be held in November of 2007 during Thanksgiving weekend.

MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall Conductor-in-Residence, Eric Dale Knapp flew into Louisville, KY, where the 49th Annual National Quartet Convention is being held this week (September 11-16), specifically to attend the press conference to announce plans for the event. “As Music Director of this event,” Knapp stated, “I am honored to lead a choir made up of 350 voices, invited from throughout the United States, with symphonic orchestra and professional soloists. Distinguished choirs from some of America’s leading churches will be invited to participate in this program, which involves a five-day/four-night residency in New York City.” Knapp, who is a former church music director, stated that he believes there has never been a time more important than now for a project such as this. “We have tremendous opportunity and mission within the American Gospel Music Festival. Music often communicates to people what words alone cannot.”

In MidAmerica’s 22-year history, they have presented some 700 concerts in New York, with nearly 350 in the famed Carnegie Hall, and dozens in the historic Lincoln Center. More than 2100 musical groups have appeared at various events presented by MidAmerica. “Our purpose is to highlight the appearance of distinguished artists and groups in important venues, and we are delighted to collaborate with Christian Music Presenters on the American Gospel Music Festival at Carnegie Hall.”

The American Gospel Music Festival will feature artists who have received the American Gospel Music certification, which is a franchise owned and operated by the National Quartet Convention, Inc, who has licensed Christian Music Presenters, Inc to administrate the certification criteria to prospective artists. “A part of our calling and mission at CMP,” Dr Randall Bayne, CMP’s CEO, stated at the press conference, “is to seek out and establish alliance relationships that can enlarge the exposure base of all genres of Christian music and especially Southern Gospel, which is personally dear to our hearts. CMP has been working diligently with the NQC Board to open the horizon in a substantial way. In light of specific market research, CMP has concluded that our style of music has an open field for ministry exposure.”

“We are very optimistic,” Clarke Beasley, NQC Executive Vice President, stated, “about the potential this partnership will yield. We believe it will open tremendous doors for our artists and our industry, as a whole.”

Additional information regarding the American Gospel Music Festival at Carnegie Hall, may be obtained by the end of September at www.natqc.com or www.americangospelmusic.com.