Cleveland Heights vocalist presents concerts
Caleb A. Wright and his band, Alexander Wright & The Collective, will perform a free concert at Forest Hill Church in Cleveland Heights on Sunday, July 7, at 6:30 p.m.
Wright, a vocalist and entertainer, is a member of the Cleveland Heights-based Wright Family Singers, who have been performing in the Cleveland area for more than 40 years.
Wright has been performing on his own, locally and nationally, for the past five years. He is a member of multiple groups and choirs, including the Wright Family Singers, Elégie, the Voices of Koinonia, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and the Cleveland Opera Circle. He has been a featured soloist for the Cleveland Orchestra, Forest Hill Presbyterian Church, South Euclid United Church of Christ, Mt. Zion Fellowship of The Brethren, Mt. Zion of Oakwood Village, First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, and St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, and was a national anthem soloist for the Cleveland Indians.
He has been granted the Karamu House’s Room In The House Artist Residency. This arts prize and residency is funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture through a Support for Artists Grant. The goal of this residency is to empower artists by providing space and support at Karamu’s theater arts facility. Artists were selected by a panel of artists and arts professionals from the Karamu House Board of Directors and Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Wright said he plans to use his residency period to “present a concert series that will explore the impact of African-Americans in American music.”
This series will kick off with a live recording of Wright and his band in concert at Forest Hill Church, featuring original songs.
The band will go on to present a History of Jazz concert in the historic Jelliffe Theatre at Karamu on Friday, July 12, at 7:30 p.m.
Bassist Charise Grimes, guitarist Joseph Rangel, and drummer Deion Williams founded the band with Wright in 2017. While they mostly play as a jazz quartet, the Collective will add six instrumentalists for the History of Jazz concert. The expanded ensemble will include horn players Robin Blake, Joe Kardos and Garrett Folger, and harmonica player Jarred Goldwebber.
The final event of Wright’s Karamu residency will be an opera masterclass and recital on Saturday, July 13, at 3 p.m., in the Arena Theatre at Karamu. This recital will feature Cleveland Opera sopranos Marley Lieberman and Lauren Wright-Harris, and tenors Governor Harris and Matthew Jones.
For information about Karamu events, visit www.karamuhouse.org, or call 216-795-7070. For information about the live recording at Forest Hill Church, visit the church website, www.fhcpresb.org, or call 216-321-2660.
Peg Weissbrod
Peg Weissbrod is the media advisor and public relations manager for Forest Hill Church. She and her husband, Steve Maranowski, are Cleveland Heights residents and active members of the Forest Hill Church community.