THE VOICE OF WHITNEY Opens at The Town Hall

Fans of Whitney Houston traveled from around the country and the world to attend the New York City premiere of The Voice of Whitney: A Symphonic Celebration, the highly anticipated concert event on February 15, 2025.

Presented by The Town Hall in collaboration with Park Avenue Artists, The Estate of Whitney E. Houston, and Primary Wave Music, The Voice of Whitney: A Symphonic Celebration features the original master and remastered recordings of Whitney's vocals set to new arrangements in a unique and one-of-a-kind reinterpretation of her classic hits and landmark songs, accompanied by never-before-seen video footage and interviews, along with some of her historic performances.

This special concert event was the third premiere of The Voice of Whitney in the U.S. and was conducted by internationally renowned conductor and music director Sean Mayes, and featured the performance of Pops of Color Orchestra, who made both their New York and Town Hall debut. The 35-piece orchestra was comprised exclusively of musicians of color with an expansive and diverse background in multiple genres of music.

The concert series follows the successful, sold-out premieres at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Philharmonic, conducted by Sean Mayes (August 30, 2024) and The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Reineke (November 8, 2024). The upcoming concert will be held on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, with the Nashville Symphony at Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The Town Hall performance was extraordinarily special because in 1978, Whitney Houston joined her mother, the legendary Cissy Houston and her brother Gary, to perform at the historic institution, where the young vocalist made her debut performance singing the popular show tune, "Tomorrow" from the Broadway musical, Annie, and this Town Hall performance featured a new orchestral arrangement of that song by Camille Thurman, a composer, saxophonist, vocalist, educator, and an unique interpreter of the jazz tradition, who is becoming one of the leading standard bearers of the art form.

Conductor Sean Mayes also presented varied Whitney classic hits and landmark songs including "I'm Your Baby Tonight," "You Give Good Love," "Greatest Love of All," "I Know Him So Well," which was recorded live with her mother, Cissy Houston; "Higher Love," "Count on Me," recorded with Cece Winans from the Waiting to Exhale - Original Soundtrack; a medley of "Step by Step" and "I Love the Lord," from the Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack, "So Emotional," "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," and "How Will I Know," which concluded the first half of the show.

Act II opened with the memorable live version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" from Superbowl XXV; a special version of "All The Man That I Need" followed, from the Welcome Home Troops Live performance; "I'm Every Women" and the performance of the three-song medley of "I Loves You, Porgy," "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," and "I Have Nothing" on the 1994 American Music Awards; "It's Not Right But It's Okay," "Saving All My Love for You, "I Will Always Love You", along with a special performance of "Greatest Love of All," conducted by Christina Morris and performed by the students from Fort Hamilton High School (Brooklyn, NY), Wadleigh Secondary School (New York, NY), and Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts (New York, NY); and the show closed with the iconic "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me"), named the greatest pop song of all time by Billboard magazine.

"I am personally so filled with gratitude and awe for the outpouring of support and excitement we have received in response to this landmark concert at The Town Hall," says Maestro Sean Mayes. "We could not have had a stronger way of celebrating Whitney's ongoing legacy to music, and to additionally celebrate this legacy with the inaugural concert performance of Pops of Color. We couldn't be more excited as we look ahead to a bright future of continuing to honor our musical and cultural icons."

Pat Houston, executive producer of the concert event and the executor of the Estate of Whitney E. Houston says, "The Town Hall production marks the fortieth anniversary of Whitney's self-titled debut album and the forty-seventh anniversary of her debut performance at Town Hall (1978) during Black History Month. The New York premiere of The Voice of Whitney was indeed special. In collaboration with the Estate, Town Hall, and Sean Mayes, we also arranged a school visit with more than fifty students from the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, located in East Orange, New Jersey."

Houston concludes: "Whitney fans traveled near and far to experience this once-in-a- lifetime event. We had an opportunity to talk with many of concertgoers after the performance and they shared how much they loved the concert and how they would like to see a tour. Whitney would be proud that we produced this concert to share with her worldwide fans. She loved making her fans happy. Stay tuned."

To post a comment, you must register and login.