Jazz up your Spirit!

The Theatre is the venue for ‘Heaven in a Nightclub’, a night of up-tempo music presented by the organisation Christian Heritage, which comes to the Waterside through the partnership of the Presbytery of Derry and Donegal and Contemporary Christianity (NI), which will bring a unique one-night-only event to the Waterside Theatre as part of the City of Culture programme for 2013.

‘Heaven in a Nightclub’ is a jazz concert interspersed with historical information about the spiritual roots of jazz, which features Bill Edgar, Ruth Naomi Floyd and Randy Pendleton from Philadelphia, at the start of their UK tour. The audience will have the opportunity to hear examples of ragtime, blues, spirituals, funeral bands and other musical influences.

The event will feature Dr Bill Edgar, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. His approach is that ‘jazz ought to entertain’ but its background is deeply rooted in the history and social and spiritual experiences of African-American people who were reared in slavery yet nurtured on the Gospel message in every aspect of life.

Tickets on sale at the Box Office or for block bookings from congregations contact Billy McIlwaine on 028 7134 6718 or email [email protected]

The show comes to Londonderry via Londonderry native Noel McCune, chairman of Conempoerary Christianity, who became aware of the show through friends in England who had seen the show in Cambridge and sang the show’s praise to his friend and mentor, Billy McIlwaine.

“I contacted him to say we could get this group for the UK City of Culture year, and that was the background to it coming here,” he said.

Tickets are £5 or £8.