Ella Fest Returns to Newport News

Join the City of Newport News to celebrate city native and "First Lady of Song" Ella Fitzgerald during the 26^th Annual Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival. From April 26 - 27, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center will be alive with incredible national artists, all honoring Ella's wide-ranging and ageless talents.

The festival begins on Friday, April 26, at 8 p.m. with a performance by René Marie & Experiment in Truth. In a span of two decades, René Marie has cemented her reputation as a singer, composer, arranger, actress, and educator. Guided and tempered by powerful life lessons and rooted in jazz traditions laid down by icons of past generations, this two-time Grammy Nominee melds jazz with elements of spirituals, folk, R&B, classical, and even country to create a captivating hybrid style. Her body of work is musical, but it's more than just music; it's an exploration of the bright and dark corners of the human experience, a musical architecture for the human spirit.

Catch René Marie & Experiment In Truth at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 and available online.

Powerhouse Grammy winning vocalist Lisa Fischer and jazz pianist Taylor Eigsti take the stage on Saturday, April 27. After four decades of singing backup vocals for icons like The Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, Sting, Tina Turner, and Nine Inch Nails, Fischer set out to take center stage with her celebrated vocal prowess. Working with Grand Baton, she reinvents classics in an organic fusion of Caribbean psychedelic soul and jazzy progressive rock. Her style, flexibility, and freedom of expression heals the heart, while rocking the house.

Tickets to René Marie & Experiment In Truth on Friday are $35 and Saturday's performance by Lisa Fischer is $40 per person. Combination tickets for both concerts are available for $70. Seating is limited, so purchase tickets early. All tickets are available online.

Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. To commemorate her status as a daughter of Newport News, the city named a portion of 24th Street "Ella Fitzgerald Way" in 2008 and named the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center's theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater.

The Ella Festival takes place at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center at 2410 Wickham Avenue in Newport News. The Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center is a multi-purpose cultural space in the Southeast Community. In addition to the 276-seat Ella Fitzgerald Theater, the arts center houses the Anderson Johnson Gallery, the Newport News Community Gallery, and numerous event spaces and meeting rooms. For more information, visit www.downinggross.org or call 757-247-8950.