Ponca City Gospel Jubilee will feature Todd and Billie East Saturday, June 20, at 6:30 p.m. Blind since birth, Todd began playing piano and singing at the age of three. He began his professional career at the age of fifteen and has been performing ever since. East studied Classical and Romantic music styles and took lessons in Jazz at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He studied music theory and performance in college at Nazareth eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree there. He took a year off college, “That’s when I became more serious about the piano,” he said. “After college, I was working full time as a keyboardist and vocalist. I did that for years and years both with bands and as a solo artist. It took me to Europe in Germany and Switzerland and Paris.
Billie has been singing Southern Gospel music all her life. She grew up traveling with her mother as she played piano for a Southern Gospel quartet. When one of the couples retired, Billie was asked to sing and make the group a trio. So at 12 years old she began traveling and singing. Since then she has been with several groups and traveled all over the US. Her voice has been compared to the legendary, Vestal Goodman.
...
