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BELLEFONTE -- Mojatuba, a fusion of dance and music for tuba, 3 p.m. Aug. 12 at Trinity United Methodist Church, 128 W. Howard St., Bellefonte.
Join Trinity Bellefonte for a unique concert experience, featuring: Velvet Brown, tuba; Kikora
Franklin, dance; and Tony Leach, piano/voice
The FREE concert includes:
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" Traditional Spiritual
Suite for Violin and Piano William Grant Still
II. Mother and Child
III. Rhythmically and Humorously
"In Memoriam Dr. Martin Luther King (1984)" Roger Kellaway
"How Beautiful" Barbara York
"Take My Mother Home from 'Honey and Rue'" Andre Previn
Anthony T. Leach, professor of music/music education is director and founder of Essence of Joy.
He served as conductor of the Penn State University Choir from 1994 - 2015 and taught
undergraduate and graduate courses in choral music education. Leach also served as
coordinator of the African American Music Festival at Penn State.
Leach holds a Ph.D. in music education and master's degree in conducting from Penn State,
and a bachelor's degree in music education from Lebanon Valley College, Annville, PA. During
the 2009 - 2010 academic year, Leach served as Penn State University Laureate.
Leach taught music in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York City for fourteen years. His choirs
have performed at festivals throughout the United States and Canada as well as tours of
England, Scotland, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Spain, France, Germany,
Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, St. Thomas/U.S. Virgin Islands, and South Africa. He has
appeared as guest conductor for choral festivals and workshops in Maryland, Florida,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, New York, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
Kentucky, Nebraska, and Massachusetts. He has also served as guest conductor for festivals in
France, Japan, Venezuela, and the Czech Republic. In 2004, Leach was co-conductor of the
World Youth Choir sponsored by the International Federation of Choral Musicians (IFCM) in
South Korea and Japan.
In addition to his responsibilities at Penn State, Leach serves as conductor of the Essence of
Joy Alumni Singers and Essence 2 Ltd. He is also director of music at Monumental AME,
Steelton, PA. He also serves as chair for Lifelong Music for the Eastern Division of the American
Choral Directors Association.
Dr. Leach retired in spring 2018.
Velvet Brown is professor of tuba and euphonium at Penn State. Prior to joining the faculty in
2003, she taught at Bowling Green State University (Ohio) and Ball State University (Indiana),
and served as an associate director of University Bands at Boston University.
She enjoys a professional career as an international soloist, chamber ensemble performer,
recording artist, conductor, and orchestral player. She has made regular appearances
throughout Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Finland, France, England, Hungary, Slovenia,
Russia, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Many of her successful students have won
prestigious playing and teaching positions and are prize winners at various regional, national,
and international competitions.
Brown is currently the principal tubist of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra and the
Altoona Symphony Orchestra. She has served as principal tuba with the River City Brass band,
guest principal with the Lahti Philharmonic in Finland, and as substitute or additional tubist with
the Detroit Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, San Francisco Women's Philharmonic Orchestra,
and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. In 2004, Brown joined Howard Johnson's "Gravity" Tuba
Jazz Ensemble as lead tuba. She has also garnered high praise as a founding and current
member of Stiletto Brass Quintet, Monarch Brass Quintet and Brass Ensemble, the Junction
Tuba Quartet, and the Pennsylvania Brassworks. Moreover, she is also a founding board
member of the International Women's Brass Conference.
She has released four solo CDs, and has collaborated on several other recordings as a soloist
and ensemble member, including the April 2013 release of Stiletto Brass Quintet with Doc
Severinsen. Also notable is her interpretation of John Williams' Tuba Concerto on Albany
Records. Brown is a Besson/Buffet/Melton/Meinl Weston Performing Artist, performing on the
MW 2250 and 2182 F tubas, and the MW 2000 C tuba. She is also a performing artist for Denis
Wick mouthpieces and mutes.
Aquila Kikora Franklin is an Associate Professor of Theatre/Dance and teaches West African,
Hip Hop, and Mojah dance. She has performed, choreographed and taught in cities across the
globe including Linz, Austria, Grahamstown, South Africa, Dakar, Senegal, Minas Gerais, Brazil,
throughout China, Europe, and the United States. Franklin has also performed and
choreographed for the Atlanta Hawks dance team. At Penn State, her creative work and
research focuses on developing the Mojah dance technique, an original style that fuses modern
(Horton and Dunham), jazz, West African, and Hip Hop movement into one form. Franklin's
interests also include studying the cultural and artistic expressions of the African Diaspora, the
development and evolution of contemporary African and African-American concert and social
dance, and using arts education as civic engagement. Franklin shares her passion for dance
and culture with young students as the artistic director of Roots of Life, a performing arts
ensemble based out of the State College Area School District.