City concert to feature world-famous blues, gospel

BANGOR – Roosevelt Andre Credit will return to Bangor to present a concert with his friend John Haskell and the choirs of the First United Methodist Church at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, at the church, 703 Essex St., Bangor.

Credit, Haskell and the choirs will present a selection of uplifting, soul-moving gospel and blues favorites in addition to many of Credit’s own composition.

The concert is free, but a freewill offering will be collected. The concert will be held after a Healthy Heart salad and bean supper from 5 to 6:30 p.m., which will benefit missions of United Methodist World Service. Tickets for the supper will be available at the door. The cost is $6 for adults, $3 children under 12.

Credit is a multitalented bass-baritone artist, conductor and composer who has been well received both nationally and internationally. He was a member of the award-winning Broadway revival cast of “Show Boat” and has just returned from Auburn, N.Y., where he was cast as Joe in the production of “Show Boat” at the Merry-go-round Theater.

This past year, Credit performed in concert with Bebe Neuwirth and Roger Reese, performing Kurt Weill music at the Avery Fisher Hall, and also in a benefit production of “Guys and Dolls” for the Iris Cantor Health Center Foundation, along with Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Lucci and others.

He has obtained two master’s degrees, in voice and opera performance and in conducting, from Northwestern University, and has been selected numerous times as a guest conductor at choral festivals.

Most recently, Credit composed choral arrangements which were performed during the ACDA Choral Convention in Des Moines, Iowa, and for which he became a recipient of the ASCAP award for the third time.