09/13/2026
You really don’t want to miss our concert at Carmel Sunset Center !
The Challenge of Richard Smallwood: Monterey Gospel Choir Takes On a Master Composer
John “Johnny” L. Nash Jr. and the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir celebrate the musical genius of Richard Smallwood
CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — When Grammy Award-winning gospel composer, pianist and singer Richard Smallwood died on December 30, 2025, he left behind an extraordinary musical legacy—songs that married the spiritual power of gospel with harmonic and rhythmic sophistication seldom attempted in choral music.
On Sunday, September 27, the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir will celebrate that legacy with a Gospel Heritage Month Concert at Sunset Center in Carmel-by-the-Sea, beginning at 5:00 p.m.
The concert represents an unusually ambitious undertaking by conductor and producer John “Johnny” L. Nash Jr., who has built a program composed almost entirely of Smallwood’s music.
Smallwood was a singular figure in contemporary gospel. Classically trained and deeply rooted in the Black church tradition, he wrote music characterized by complex chords, shifting and sometimes demanding rhythms, soaring melodies and lyrics capable of moving effortlessly between intimate prayer and jubilant praise. His compositions—including works such as Total Praise and I Love the Lord—have traveled far beyond the gospel choir loft and have been performed and recorded by some of the best-known voices in American popular music.
For Nash and the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir, honoring Smallwood therefore means doing far more than performing a collection of favorite gospel songs. It means taking on the musical vocabulary of a composer who continually challenged singers and musicians while making that complexity sound natural, lyrical and deeply affecting.
Nash has been singled out for his willingness to take on that challenge and to devote virtually an entire concert to a single composer whose music demands so much of both choir and instrumentalists.
The program will also include a work by Edwin Hawkins, another towering figure in modern gospel music and an important mentor to Nash—a musical acknowledgment of the lineage through which gospel traditions are passed from one generation of artists to the next.
The scale of the tribute has attracted performers from well beyond the Monterey Peninsula. Musicians and vocal soloists are traveling from across the country to participate, joining the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir for an evening that brings together artists whose own lives and careers intersect with the gospel tradition Smallwood helped shape.
Special guest artists include Dottie Jones, an original Smallwood singer; Charrisse Nelson of Smallwood’s Vision; Seattle Opera soprano Elaina Lewis; Chicago baritone Martin Woods; acclaimed pianist, composer and conductor Damien Sneed; and violinist and composer John Wineglass.
The weekend will also bring an unusual convergence of gospel and jazz musicians to the Monterey Peninsula. Members of the Texas Southern University Jazz Ensemble of Houston are expected to join performers participating in the Smallwood tribute while in Monterey during Monterey Jazz Festival weekend.
For Nash, the evening is both tribute and testimony—to a composer whose work demonstrated that gospel music can be harmonically intricate, rhythmically challenging, emotionally immediate and spiritually transformative all at once.
The result promises to be not simply a retrospective, but a living demonstration of Richard Smallwood’s continuing influence on American music.
Gospel Heritage Month Concert
Presented by John “Johnny” L. Nash Jr. and the Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir
Sunday, September 27, 2026 — 5:00 p.m.
Sunset Center, Carmel-by-the-Sea
Tickets are available through the Sunset Center Box Office and at sunsetcenter.org.
MEDIA NOTE
John “Johnny” L. Nash Jr. is available for interviews about Richard Smallwood’s musical legacy, the challenges of preparing an almost all-Smallwood concert, his relationship to the gospel tradition and Walter Hawkins, and the extraordinary group of musicians and vocalists coming together in Monterey for this performance.
