Renese King

Since her “debut” solo performance of the Lord’s Prayer at the age of two, accompanied by the percussive clanking and hissing of ancient heating ducts in a basement church school room, Renese King’s array of musical talents has taken her from spiritual and gospel singing at the church podium to timpani playing on the Carnegie Hall stage. Her soulful and moving voice has garnered her numerous featured and guest solo appearances with the Boston Pops, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Pops gospel chorus, and many other ensembles across the nation.

Most recently gracing the soundtrack of Harriet Tubman, Visions of Freedom, now streaming on PBS, her voice is a feature on the soundtracks of three Emmy, Peabody, and Sundance award- winning PBS documentary films: Freedom Riders (2011), Freedom Summer (2014), and Tell Them We Are Rising (2018). Singing “Hallelujah I’m A Travelin’, she leads a chorus of freedom riders in spontaneous expression of solidarity in the Oprah Winfrey television special “The Freedom Riders Reunite 50 years Later.”

A “Gospel/Inspirational Artist of the Year” Boston Music Award recipient, she is a pianist at the Waymark SDA Church in Dorchester, MA, Music Director of the New England Gospel Ensemble, a Berklee College of Music alumna, and remains committed to sharing the unifying and uplifting message at the heart of gospel music.