Joy Murrell, Vocalist
Dramatic soprano, Joy Murrell has been an active solo performer since the age of nine in her native country of Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. She has pursued degrees in music from the Jamaica School of Music and Drew University where she majored in voice, piano, flute, music theory, composition and music education and dabbled in other instruments. Her voice teachers over the years include Vibart Seaforth, Alice Helgeson of the Metropolitan Opera, and Ken Smith. Ms. Murrell has enjoyed performing solo recitals, and in concerts across the eastern United States and Canada, and locally with Opera Wilmington and the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra in their 2003 production of Candide. In the Fall of 2006 she recorded a French Creole lullaby in the film Too White to be Black, Too Black to be White: The New Orleans Creole created by UNCW Professor Maurice Martinez.
An active participant in the music scene Ms. Murrell serves on the board of the North Carolina Music Teachers Association, as chairperson of the Independent Music Teachers Forum, and also on the board of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra among others. She has recently been named the UNCW’s Upperman African American Cultural Center Artist for the Spring 2007. Joy makes her home in Wilmington with her husband and three children and runs an active piano and voice studio.
Joyce Grear, Storyteller
Joyce Grear is an accomplished storyteller who has toured the United States since 1987. A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, Grear is renowned for her “First Person Interpretations” She combines storytelling and true historical facts to captivate audiences through dramatic interpretations of outstanding individuals in American history.
She teaches drama, writes plays and directs the children of FNI, in addition to her own performances. She uses stories as a teaching tool. She is a griot of Wilmington. She is a storyteller of her village, for she knows that storytelling is the oldest form of the village school.
Having graduated from Williston Senior High School in 1966, Joyce was voted “Best Actress” her senior year. Forty Years later, creativity, children and community are still the balance of this artist in residence, Joyce Grear, The Storyteller.
Grenaldo Frazier, Musician
Grenaldo Frazier is a nationally respected composer, musician and actor. He was the composer of the gospel Off-Broadway musical Mama I Want to Sing, which Time magazine named one of the ten best New York shows of 1980 and the composer of Moms Mabley's Story. As a musician, Frazier completed a soundtrack for Dawson's Creek. He has recorded with and accompanied many contemporary stars and recording artists. He has acted on the stage, in films and commercials, winning a Best Supporting Actor (Off-Broadway) for Bill Harris' Robert Johnson - Tick the Devil. He was also the musical director for the Carnegie Hall Jazz series celebrating the life of Bessie Smith. He has appeared on stage in the Seattle Repertory Theatre production of Langston Hughes' play, "Love Langston."
