MEMPHIS, JULY 2011 – As Lincoln Center’s 2011 Out of Doors Festival pays homage to Stax Records with live performances by stalwarts such as Steve Cropper of Booker T. & the MGs, Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers, and other veterans of the Memphis soul label, a new talent pool from Stax will also take the festival stage when the Stax Music Academy performs at the festival’s Hearst Plaza on Sunday, July 31st at 3:30 p.m.
The Stax Music Academy touring ensemble includes more than 15 high school students comprising a rhythm section and vocal group performing Stax Records standards plus a few surprises from an incomparable Memphis music.
The Stax Music Academy, which was featured in a special segment on the Today show in February 2011, is a program of the Soulsville Foundation, which also operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and The Soulsville Charter School, a 6-12 grade academic college preparatory school. All are located at the original site of Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, in the city’s poorest zip code.
The Stax Music Academy began programming in 2000, before it’s 27,000 square-foot building opened in 2002, and has since helped change the lives of thousands of young people through music education. For the past three years, all high school seniors enrolled at the academy were accepted to college. Stax Music Academy students have performed in Italy, Australia, and at many locations in the United States. The Soulsville Foundation’s President and CEO is GRAMMY Award winner and jazz and gospel artist Kirk Whalum.
