Special Coverage: Tyreek McDole Concert
August 23, 2025 by Philip Cardella
Community Arts Program (CAP) wrapped up its 40th season with a chart topping performer in its Summer Concert Series on Thursday: new comer Tyreek McDole and his ensemble.
CAP, a program started and maintained by Coral Gables' oldest church, Coral Gables Congregational Church built by the city founder himself, George Merrick, holds the summer series each summer, filling the 100 year old sanctuary with melodies and performances from jazz to classical to big band.
From Doc Severinsen, the leader of the NBC Orchestra on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, to the Vienna Choir Boys to Ann Hampton Callaway have preformed in the concert series over the years.
The series is a part of CAP's larger mission to train primary and secondary school aged students to one day take the stage as professional musicians themselves– or just musicians that want to have fun.
CAP's award winning after school program was started in 2003, when Executive and Artistic Director Mark Hart was hired for CAP's then new mission: to provide educational and culturally-enriching experiences through the transforming power of the music.
The program, while drawing musicians from around the world, has always been deeply rooted in Coral Gables and South Florida.
It was fitting that a Haitian American with roots in South Florida who has sat in the number one position for the three consecutive weeks on the Jazz Week charts would be the finale of the season.
Tyreek McDole brought his award winning voice and his ensemble to back his debut album, Open Up Your Senses, to Coral Gables and he and his band did not disappoint.
McDole's voice soared, scatted, plunged into incredible depths of passion and pitch and filled the old church with the joy, heart and healing of jazz.
Not to be outdone, the quartet of players backing him similarly showed incredible virtuoso abilities as they improvised long solos, applauded and egged on by McDole, in the great tradition of the great American art form.
Though a young and rising star, as the East Bay Times gushed earlier this summer, Mr. McDole paid tribute to several jazz legends, asking the audience to say the names of each legend after him as a way to perhaps ingrain them in the minds of the listeners.
The audience was, perhaps, not short on years of experience of listening to music, they enthusiastically cheered, clapped and when they could keep up and knew the words, sang along with the vibrant and powerful performance.
It was certainly a show to remember and Tyreek McDole is an artist to keep an eye on. I would be surprised if those fortunate enough to enjoy the show Thursday weren't witnessing the beginning of a multi-Grammy winning career.
I will be looking forward to next year's Community Arts Program (CAP) Summer Concert Series while eagerly following McDole's career.
Picture 1: Audience in the packed house waits for the show to begin Picture 2: Deleites Events & Catering provided a Taco Station for some of the refreshments before the show. Picture 3: The Community Arts Program Logo over Gary Jones III during one of his drum solos. Picture 4: Tyreek McDole talks to audience members during the intermission.