Lehman Center for the Performing Arts and Goya Foods celebrates Feliz Navidad with the return, by popular demand, of multi-Grammy Award-winning legendary singer, composer and virtuoso guitarist José Feliciano on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018 at 8 pm.
Nine-time Grammy Award winner and one of Latin music’s most beloved stars known for his chart-topping recording “Light My Fire” that catapulted him to pop superstardom in 1968, and his best-selling Christmas single and Grammy Hall of Fame original song “Feliz Navidad,” José Feliciano possesses an unmistakable tenor voice that can be heard on nearly 70 albums.
He brought the acoustic guitar to a new level and influenced pop music for two generations with songs in English, Spanish, and Italian, crossing over genres of music, from soul to pop, and from Latin to classical. His mega-hits include “Ché Sera” and “Me Has Echado Al Olvido”. Forty-five gold and platinum records, nine Grammy® Awards, the most recent being the 2011 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, countless additional honors and awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame signify a career rivaled by only a handful of artists. Feliciano caught the world by surprise when he became the first artist to ever stylize the U.S. National Anthem “Star-Spangled Banner” and perform it publicly, which went on to be a charted Top-40 recording in 1968.
This year, on Flag Day (June 14), to celebrate the 50th (Golden) Anniversary of his interpretation of the anthem, José donated the custom-built guitar that he used to record it to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., which also displays the original Star-Spangled Banner, quite an exciting experience for Feliciano! Just as he had taken long-time standards and made them new with his own style of acoustic guitar and jazz and American vocal inflections, he created the pathway for new generations of stylization of the anthem. Puerto Rican-born José Feliciano returns to Lehman Center to perform a special Feliz Navidad Holiday Concert. Produced by Lehman Center.
This concert continues the completion of the first phase of renovations at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. Concert goers will find that the lobbies have been upgraded for ADA compliance with new ramps and carpeting, and the interior of the theater will have new seating, carpeted aisles, and finished flooring as well. The $15.4 million dollar refurbishment of the Center, which is expected to be completed by mid-2019, will also include 5,400 square feet of enlarged space, with a new main entrance and a redesigned box office, plus new administration offices and restroom facilities on the first and mezzanine floors, and an elevator.
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is on the campus of Lehman College/CUNY at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468. Tickets for José Feliciano on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018 at 8 pm are $100*VIP, $65, $55, $50 | Children 12 & under, $10 any seat and can be purchased by calling the Lehman Center box office at 718-960-8833 (Monday through Friday, 10 am – 5 pm, and beginning at 4 pm on the day of the concert), or through online access at www.Lehma
