Award winner Kim Burrell is headliner for annual Festival of Black Gospel, Feb. 18-20

Texas-born gospel singer Kim Burrell, a Stellar Award winner, will join artists Blessed Hope and Donna Ware & Harambee on opening night of Cornell's 24th annual Festival of Black Gospel, Feb. 18. Celeste Wells

Texas-born singing sensation Kim Burrell will warm the hearts and lift the spirits on opening night of the 24th annual Festival of Black Gospel at Cornell, Friday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Burrell is joined by a powerhouse twin bill: gospel artists Blessed Hope and Donna Ware & Harambee.

Tickets are $7 for the general public and $5 for those with a student ID or people in groups of five or more. Advance sale tickets are available locally at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m., and at Logos Bookstore Emporium on the Ithaca Commons. Tickets also will be available at the door.

Burrell is a recent winner of the Stellar Award, the "Grammy" of gospel music. Billboard magazine describes her latest CD, "Everlasting Life," as featuring "strong songs" and "soaring vocals" that deliver a Gospel message "with a life-in-the-real-world honesty that is powerful without being preachy." Burrell excels in the gospel tradition and has complementary crossover stylings that slide easily into contemporary R&B and jazz, a la Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald.

The gospel festival continues Saturday, Feb. 19, with a "mass choir" workshop open to the public at 10 a.m. in Bailey Hall, followed by a free "Gospel Explosion" at 7 p.m., featuring gospel choirs from Cornell, Ithaca and the Northeast rattling the rafters under the direction of Elder Jay Nixon from Dunamis Ministries of Brooklyn, N.Y.

The festival concludes Sunday, Feb. 20, at 5:30 p.m. with a worship service in the Willard Straight Memorial Room. The Rev. Michael McLymore of Life Restoration Church, Newburgh, N.Y., will preside at the service.

The festival, one of the university's most popular events each year, is sponsored by: Cornell United Religious Work, Student Assembly Finance Committee, Minority Finance Committee, Africana Latino Asian Native American Program (ALANA), Cornell Board of Minority Educational Affairs, Cornell Concert Commission, Cornell University Program Board, class councils, Ithaca's St. James A.M.E. Zion Church, Presbyterian Church Cooperative and Ithaca's Calvary Baptist Church.

For more information, contact the Festival of Black Gospel office at 255-6514 or Alishia Green, festival coordinator, at 272-2738, e-mail alg11@cornell.edu.