The Making of Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration—A Close Listening Session
Part of the yearlong event series Quincy Jones: Beyond Category

ADMISSION & CAMPUS ACCESS:
Admission is free. Reservations are required. Campus access is limited to registered guests and USC students, staff, and faculty with current USC ID.

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DESCRIPTION:
In 1992, Mervyn Warren, five-time Grammy Award–winning composer-arranger, original member of Take 6, and longtime collaborator of Quincy Jones, spearheaded a soulful rendition of Handel’s Messiah. Featuring an incredible array of special guests, the album spanned spirituals, blues, jazz, ragtime, big band, fusion, R&B, and hip hop, and won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. The album was executive produced by Quincy Jones.

This special event will include a close listening of the album in its entirety and a panel with Warren and special guests including platinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated singer Tevin Campbell; Claude McKnight, lead tenor and founder of Take 6, the most awarded a cappella group in history; and engineer, mixer, producer, and owner of Breath of Life Records Tony Shepperd, who will reminisce and share captivating stories about the album’s unique creation and recording near USC during the Los Angeles uprising and riots. 

Schedule:

6:30–7:45 p.m.: Audience members are invited to participate in a close listening of the album. Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration will be played in its entirety, in sequence. If you have never heard the album, want to re-hear it, or want to be part of a collective listening experience of the album in a public setting, please join. 

7:45–8 p.m.: Intermission 

8–9:30 p.m.: The close listening session will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with Warren, Campbell, McKnight, and Shepperd moderated by Jason King, dean of USC Thornton School of Music, and Dr. Tram Sparks, chair of the USC Thornton Department of Choral & Sacred Music.
 

The Making of Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration is part of Quincy Jones: Beyond Category, an event series organized by the USC Thornton School of Music to explore, elevate, and celebrate Quincy Jones’s life and legacy. Working across styles and idioms including classical, jazz, pop, R&B, and film scoring—and breaking ground for African American achievement in the entertainment industries—Jones has garnered the highest levels of critical and commercial acclaim. 

Related events:

Screening Quincy Jones: Duke Ellington… We Love You Madly
Friday, September 20, 2024, at 7 p.m.
Norris Cinema Theatre
Get more info HERE.

Presenting Patti Austin: A Vocal Masterclass
Wednesday, October 23, 2024, from 3 to 5 p.m. 
Carson Soundstage
Get more info HERE.

In Tune with Quincy Jones: A Special Panel Event Featuring Q’s Key Collaborators
Wednesday, October 23, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.
Bovard Auditorium
Get more info HERE.

Quincy Jones Symphonic: A USC Concert Experience
Friday, March 14, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
Bovard Auditorium
Get more info HERE.

Vibe Revived: Reflections from Vibe Magazine’s Trailblazing Writers and Editors
Saturday, March 15, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
Newman Recital Hall
Get more info HERE.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by the USC Thornton School of Music in collaboration with the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective.

Portrait: Jason Clark