NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — Jazz icon Roberta Flack will be presented with the Keys to New York City on July 16th, during the 20th annual St. Albans Jazz Festival in Queens, New York.
Flack will be present during the presentation ceremony, which will also be attended by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and City Council President Adrienne Adams.
Known for her skills on the piano and for her legendary vocal chops, Flack has been a New Yorker since the 1970s and a fixture of the city’s vibrant jazz scene. She has also been a driving force in eduction in the city, providing financial support through the Roberta Flack Foundation
In 2006, Flack founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, providing access to musical education to students regardless of their ability to pay. The school provided educations to more than 1,000 students before it closed its doors in 2016.
Flack and her team hope to reopen the school in the near future and the foundation recently granted a scholarship to Bronx resident Abdul Akinola, a trumpet-playing student at the Hyde School, to attend the prestigious Manhattan School of Music’s Summer Program.
The free St. Albans Jazz Festival will take place on July 16th at St. Albans Parks with scheduled performances by Regina Belle, Norman Brown, Leon & The Peoples, and The St. Albans All-Star Band.
