Michelle Necci

Michelle David & The Gospel Sessions, who kept us going during the lockdown with their Sunday Service concert series, are coming out with a Christmas album. It's A Soulful Christmas – out on December 4 – not only offers consolation, but especially cosiness for Christmas. That happens with soul, gospel and pop in various shades. In doing so, a bridge is built between the Christian Christmas with the birth of Jesus and the American interpretation of it with Santa Claus and presents under the tree. Everything contributes to an ultimate Christmas experience. Or as Michelle puts it: “It's a record that takes you through the Christmas season and beyond with a lot of soul.”

Michelle Barzel Ross is an Iraqi(Mizrahi)-American violinist, composer, and improviser. A protégé of Itzhak Perlman, Michelle is known for her debut album, pop-up project and blog Discovering Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach. A gifted improviser across genres, Michelle is featured on Movement 11’ of the GRAMMY winning Best Album of the Year: We Are, by Jon Batiste. This season, Michelle has the honor of performing with the Juilliard String Quartet as guest first violinist for their winter International and US tours, while Areta Zhulla is on maternity leave.

Over the course of time there have been many overlooked artists in classical music, because of their race and/or gender. It is important to acknowledge that we have not yet heard the whole story due to this sidelining of voices. Composers Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still, Florence B. Price, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and George Walker, have all contributed beautifully crafted works to the repertoire, but are not widely celebrated. Another contributing factor to this unfortunate reality is access to their manuscripts and recordings of their work which we believe would lead to greater awareness and programming of their incredible music.