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Next Performing Arts | Music
World Premiere
Advance ticket sale begins for members July 7—join today!
Tickets available to the general public July 21
For ticketing questions please call the Visitor Desk at (614) 292-3535.
If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation to participate in this event, please email accessibility@wexarts.org or call (614) 688-3890. Visit our Accessibility page to learn more.
Mark Lomax II and the Urban Art Ensemble premiere their new release, The Unity Suite, which draws musical inspiration from Lomax’s experiences in the Black church.
Experience a musical performance focused on elevating the human spirit through healing, transformation, and unifying the human family. The Unity Suite, a composition in six movements, shows how music was used to facilitate spiritual transformation in the church performers and the congregation, allowing them to thrive in the midst of physical, political, economic, and psychological terror. Lomax invokes the power of Black sacred music and worship traditions to engage the global challenges humanity must overcome to save itself and the planet, and to find a spiritual balance with the cosmos. A former Wexner Center Artist Residency Award winner, Lomax has performed at the Wex many times over his career. (program approx. 60 mins.)
IMAGE CAPTIONMark Lomax II, photo: Bree Davis.
Kenyatta Beasley – trumpet Rob Dixon – alto saxophone Edwin Bayard – tenor and soprano saxophones William Menefield – piano Dean Hulett – bass Mark Lomax II – drums and composition
Columbus-based Mark Lomax II is a critically acclaimed musician, composer, activist, and educator who has performed with gospel choirs around the country. Lomax has worked with jazz artists such as Delfeayo Marsalis, Clark Terry, and Bennie Maupin. A local treasure, Lomax uses his talents to explore the spiritual and sociopolitical aspects of African American art and build bridges in the community. With the support of a 2018 Wexner Center Artist Residency Award, Lomax completed and premiered his work 400: An Afrikan Epic at the Wex on January 16, 2019. The 12-album project focuses on the story of Black America over the 400 years between the start of the transatlantic slave trade and today but also delves further back into precolonial African history and pushes beyond the present with an Afrofuturist vision of community strength and union.
Doris Duke Foundation
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
The Columbus Foundation
Every Page Foundation
Mellon Foundation
Axium Packaging
Nationwide Foundation
Joyce Shenk
Lachelle Thigpen
Next Performing Arts
Mark Lomax II
