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Sweet Cherie
Musical Director of R&B /Go-Go Band, Be’la Dona Cherie graduated with Honors from Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Howard University majoring in Jazz Studies. She also studied Classical Music Performance at Oklahoma City University and Virginia Commonwealth University. She was crowned Miss DC National Teenager 1988 and won the talent category.
Within the past 18 years Cherie has been privileged to tour/play keyboards with Recording Artists such as: Pieces of a Dream, Chuck Brown, Sugar Bear and EU, Nile Rodgers and Chic, Stephanie Mills, Ledisi, Raheem Devaughn, Melanie Fiona, Avery Sunshine, ErykahBadu, Wynton Marsalis, George Duke, George Clinton, Maysa Leak, Sir Elton John, Chrisette Michele, Patti LaBelle, Omar Hakim, Gerald Veasley, Ben E King, Lloyd Price, Tavares, Gene Chandler, Ronny Jordon, Najee, Eric Benet, Prince, Marc Dorsey, Angela Bofil, Phil Perry, Allyson Williams, Vesta Williams, Marcus Miller, Goapole,Tony Terry, Miles Jaye, Irene Cara, Maxine Nightingale, Ylanla Vanzant, Thelma Houston, Anita Ward, Chaka Khan, Lenny White, Taylor Dane, Rose Royce, Richard Smallwood, Kid Rock, Sugar Hill Gang, Howard Hewitt, Case, Christopher Williams, Stevie Nicks, Chico DeBarge, and Michael Bolton.
As a Songwriter Cherie wrote songs on Jazz Recording Artist Pieces of a Dream's cds such as: "You and I" sung by Maysa Leak (Ahead to the Past/Blue Note Records) "Triflin" (Acquainted w/ the Night/Heads Up Int'l) "Your Love" (Acquainted w/ the Night/Heads Up Int'l)
As a Performer she is featured on cd's and dvd’s of Chuck Brown /Pieces of a Dream / George Clinton's Montreux Jazz Live DVD / EU's "Um Bop Bop” and Be’la Dona Live cds
Cherie has toured on many major tours and festivals all over the world in countries such as: France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Korea, Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Russia, Poland, Belgium, England, The Netherlands, Mexico, and The US Caribbean. She also performed in major venues and tours such as The Tom Joyner Cruise / The Capital Jazz Cruise / The Capital Jazz Festival / The Wembley Arena / Paradiso/ House of Blues/ Constitution Hall / The Howard Theater / Warner Theatre/ The Verizon Center /The Hampton Jazz Festival / The Carter Baron / Blues Alley / Ft Dupont / The Blue Note Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Yokohama / The Tokyo Billboard /The Essence Festival/ The Montreux Jazz Festival / VH1 HipHop Honors /
Outside of performing on stage, Cherie is a Lecturer of GoGo Music for the Smithsonian Institute, educating the History and Importance of GoGo in the DC Public School System. She is also a Board Member for The Washington Area Music Association (WAMA), a member of NARAS (Grammy) and ASCAP…and is endorsed by Korg USA.
She co-hosted at GoGoRadio.com as a Radio Personality for "Inside the Pocket" Show
She has also been awarded Three WAMA AWARDS for Best GoGo Instrumentalist ...and....Two WAMA Awards w/ Be'la Dona for Best Urban Contemporary Band and Best GoGo Band.
