I’m
David L. Coddon,
and here’s your guide to all things essential in San Diego’s arts and culture this week.
Are we starved for positive messages or what? I found some, appropriately enough, during the just-completed Easter/Passover season in a virtual offering from the free “Live with Carnegie Hall” livestream series. Producers
Ray and Vivian Scott Chew hosted an hour of R&B and gospel music titled
“Be the Light: A Joyful Celebration” that’s intended to uplift, inspire and bridge the sociopolitical and cultural divides tormenting us as a nation.
Reflecting that mission is the opening video performance in the show: six-time Grammy winner Israel Houghton’s collaboration with Azi Schwartz, cantor of New York City’s Park Avenue Synagogue, on Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” That’s followed by singer-songwriter Kenny Lattimore and a gifted college student covering Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me,” then Ray Chew, on keyboards