WASHINGTON,
June 22, 2017
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In what is becoming a Washington-area rite of summer,
SoundExchange's Summer Music Celebration, a charitable event
benefiting the local public arts magnet school Duke Ellington
School of the Arts, was held last night at the Newseum featuring
the GRAMMY-nominated singer and producer Jidenna.
The annual Summer Music Celebration highlights the vital
role of the arts in our lives by encouraging and nurturing arts
education for young creators.
"This event celebrates all music creators, current and
future. We are pleased to support The Duke Ellington School of the
Arts and honored that Jidenna, who is deeply committed to education
and the arts, helped us support the next generation of music
genius," SoundExchange President and CEO Michael Huppe said.
This year SoundExchange partnered
with Jidenna, a GRAMMY®-nominated
artist who blends music from multiple genres to form his own
unique sound. Jidenna's double-platinum Billboard Hot 100 song
"Classic Man" was featured in the 2016 Academy Award winning
film Moonlight.
Before launching his music career, Jidenna worked as a
teacher in the New York public
school system, and then continued as an advocate in his work with
former First Lady Michelle Obama on
her higher education initiatives.
Students with Duke Ellington School of the Arts' Radical
Elite Band performed at a reception prior to the event. All
sponsorship funds from the Summer Music Celebration will benefit
the Ellington Fund, a 501(c)(3)
created to support the arts programming of the Duke Ellington
School of the Arts, which has offered an arts curriculum for public
school students in the District for more than 40 years and boasts
many famous graduates.
"We are thrilled to be selected for the second year in a
row as the beneficiary of the SoundExchange Summer Music
Celebration," said Ari Fitzgerald,
president of The Ellington Fund. "Our partnership with
SoundExchange has provided tremendous exposure for our students and
helped us to continue providing them with a high-quality arts
education. As we return to our newly renovated, state-of-the-art
school building, we must be prepared to provide the best teachers,
art supplies, instruments and enrichment opportunities available
for our talented, hard-working and deserving students. The
funds raised at this event will help ensure that these students,
many of whom reside east of the Anacostia River, receive the
education and support they need to become flourishing, productive
and well-trained artists. The Ellington Fund and Duke Ellington
School of the Arts are grateful to SoundExchange for hosting this
event and to the many businesses that have joined with them as
sponsors."
A bipartisan honorary Congressional host committee
supported SoundExchange's efforts to put on the Summer Music
Celebration.
Sponsors of the event included: ACG Advocacy, Acumen
Solutions, Billboard, City National Bank, Comcast NBCUniversal,
Jenner & Block, KPMG, National Music Publishers' Association,
RIAA, Sodexo Magic, SAG-AFTRA, T-Mobile, The Meltzer Group, ten
mile SQUARE and Wells Fargo.
About SoundExchange
SoundExchange
works at the center of digital music, developing business solutions
to benefit the entire music industry. The organization collects and
distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of more than
130,000 recording artists and master rights owners accounts and
administers direct agreements on behalf of rights owners and
licensees. To date, SoundExchange has paid out more than
$4.5 billion in royalties. In
May 2017, SXWorks, a subsidiary of
SoundExchange, acquired the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights
Agency Ltd. (CMRRA). CMRRA represents music publishers and
administers the majority of songs recorded, sold and broadcast in
Canada. For more information,
visit www.SoundExchange.com or
www.facebook.com/soundexchange or
www.cmrra.ca
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SOURCE SoundExchange