Patrick Dailey has been described as possessing “a powerful and elegant countertenor voice” (Los Angeles Daily News) and a “VOCAL STANDOUT” (Boston Classical Review). He has appeared with Grand Rapids Symphony, Opera Memphis, Pacific Opera Project, Tete a Tete New Opera Festival(UK), Austin Baroque Orchestra, Shreveport Opera, Opera Louisiane, Woodhouse Opera Festival(UK),  Il Festival de Ópera Barroca de Belo Horizonte (Brazil) among many other organizations. A versatile artist, Dailey has performed with the likes of acclaimed broadway composer Jason Robert Brown,  and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. He’s featured in international filmmaker Ben Gregor’s Fatherhood (FUSE TV)  as well as recording projects from Louis York (American Griots), Adrian Dunn (Redemption Live in Chicago and Emancipation: Act I (Live)), The Aeolians of Oakwood University and can be heard in Boaz Yakin’s new film ONCE AGAIN (for the very first time). Recent highlights included debuts and appearances with American Opera Project, Handel Choir of Baltimore, The Thirteen, Opera Philadelphia, and Washington Bach Consort as well as the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s The Jonah People: A Legacy of Struggle and Triumph with the Nashville Symphony. Mr. Dailey was featured on season 17 of America’s Got Talent with Metaphysic as the operatic singing voice of Terry Crews in a performance Simon Cowell referred to as the “best of the series” and was named Best Classical Singer in Nashville Scene magazine’s 2022 Best of Nashville issue. His 2023-24 season include the world premiere of James Dargan’s AMASS with Early Music Access Project, the New York premiere of his curated concert, Sankofa Project: A Journey Through Black Music and Artistry, a debut with the Chattanooga Bach Choir in Bach’s St. John’s Passion and his Paris concert debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with Africa Lyric’s Opera. 

A graduate of both Morgan State University and Boston University, Mr. Dailey is Professor of Voice and founding director of the Big Blue Opera Initiatives at Tennessee State University, founding director of the W. Crimm Singers and co-founder of Early Music City. He serves on numerous arts and community boards locally and nationally and is the president of the International Florence Price Festival. For more information, visit www.PatrickDaileyCT.com.

Picture it...North (pronounced Norf) Nashville, summer of 2018...a group of friends that just so happen to be  vocalists of various backgrounds and experiences come together at the request of veteran music educator and opera singer, William G. Crimm for a Wakanda-themed Freedom School presentation. They had so much fun and vowed to get together more often. Thus, the W. Crimm Singers (A.K.A. The Wakanda Chorale) was born! 

The W. Crimm Singers is professional ensemble-in-residence of the Big Blue Opera Initiatives at Tennessee State University. The ensemble wholly embraces the music of the Black experience throughout the diaspora and every genre connected to it. A versatile ensemble, major emphasis is placed on the Negro Spiritual, African American operatic and concert repertoire, hymnody, and anthems. The W. Crimm Singers boosts a roster of over 70 artists with opera and theater artists, grade school and collegiate educators, scholars, activists, civil servants, recording artists, session singers, and more are counted amongst its ranks. Moreover, this aggregation is committed to providing professional opportunities to young artists for color from local HBCUs and PWIs. 

In their time together, the W. Crimm Singers has recorded and performed with Louis York (American Griots, 2019) , Stars Go Dim, Intersection Contemporary Music Ensemble, Hannibal Lukombe, Rodrick Dixon, and been featured on 91Classical’s Live in Studio C and Bobby Jones Presents which is among the shows most requested and broadcast performances. In 2019, The group debuted in the Colour of Music Festival performing R. Nathaniel Dett’s The Chariot Jubilee under the baton of Dr. David Morrow and in 2020, presented Songs from the Heart of a Woman: The Vocal Music of Florence Price for the International Florence Price Festival. Later that year, they were featured in Black Youth Project’s Virtual Juneteenth Celebration. Members of the W. Crimm Singers were featured soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Early Music City at the Music City Messiah Festival in December 2021, marking the first all Black vocal cast to perform the work in Nashville in over 25 years. They have been staples of the Harry T. Burleigh Spirituals Festival since 2018 as well as the Nashville African American Wind Symphony’s annual Juneteenth Concert. The W. Crimm Singers can also be heard on the Sir The Baptist and Tennessee State University Band’s Grammy nominated album, The Urban Hymnal (2022). In February 2023, the group made its Grand Ole Opry debut on Reportin’ For Duty: A Leslie Jordan Tribute with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. Receiving rave reviews for their performance in 2022, the W. Crimm Singers returned to the National Civil Rights Museum for 55th and 56th annual commemorations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 2023 and 2024. The aggregate opened the 2023 CMA Awards with Jelly Roll and Wynona Judd. Each individual truly is a force unto themselves so when they come together, brace yourselves! 

Celebrated recording artist and NAACP Image Award-winning author Shawn Amos, best known as joyful bluesman The Reverend Shawn Amos, is an astute storyteller of multiple mediums. Shawn invests his unique creative vision and business savvy in both his own work and the endeavors of countless collaborators. He first honed these skills— and a restless entrepreneurial spirit— as a child of 1970s Hollywood, helping his father Wally “Famous” Amos launch a now-iconic cookie brand on then-gritty Sunset Boulevard.

Following a stint at NYU film school, Shawn wrote scripts for A & M films by day, recording and performing original music focusing on race and identity by night. As a record company executive, he conceived and produced multiple releases for both Rhino Entertainment and Shout! Factory, including Grammy-nominated box set Rhapsodies in Black: Music & Words From the Harlem Renaissance and Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones. The legendary Jones subsequently enlisted Shawn to oversee his Listen Up Foundation.

The new millennium saw Shawn unexpectedly pioneer content marketing for companies seeking a potent online voice. This fruitful path led to his current position with communications agency Hudson Cutler, where Shawn counsels executives on everything from media appearances to change management. He is executive producer of the animated series, Cookies & Milk (based upon his debut book), in development at Disney, and author of middle-grade novel, Franklin and the Fabulous 5ive (2026 publication). The Reverend Shawn Amos Dance Party, an album of originals and 1960s dance classics, is forthcoming. Blackbox, the jazz and blues series he curates for Santa Monica performing arts center BroadStage, is in its sixth year.