Artist Tony Spencer Recently Featured on Close Up Radio

ANNAPOLIS, MD, UNITED STATES, January 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- “If you are going to complain, then get involved!” declares our guest. Our guest, who has much professional and life experience to his credit, has truly become a pillar of his community. He now desires to take his influence in another noble direction. This is the story of Tony Spencer.

Tony Spencer is an artist that paints and sings. He draws much of his inspiration from his experiences growing up, his accomplishments throughout his life, and most notably, his ancestor – his great-great-grandfather James Spencer.

The type of painting that Tony does is acrylic on canvas in an abstract style. Much of his art is African inspired.

Besides the fine arts, Tony has also made his mark in the performing arts. Tony performs both as a solo artist (Person to Person, 2006) and as part of the Sunset Band. The genres of music that he performs are old school R&B and jazz.

Tony’s interest in music came at a young age from his mother’s side of the family. “As I was growing up, and coming from the church, Gospel music was a very important and influential part of my life,” recalls Tony.

He earned regional and national recognition as the winner of the Larnelle Harris National Talent Search back in 1987, which afforded him the opportunity to record his first full solo recording project, Person to Person. Many years later Tony performed around the globe with Dr. J. Ernest Greene doing his creative musical artistry of Mozart, Motown and More We performed in Maryland, (1998) Calgary, Alberta, Canada (2000), the Saluzzo Spring Festival in Alba, Italy (2003), performing with the Florida Orchestra (2003), and later with Jazz musician Stef Scaggiari in his hometown of Evansville, Indiana (2006). “Singing is very important to me,” shares Tony.

Tony has met many people along the way that had a positive influence on him. Most notable of his influences was his great-great-grandfather, James Spencer.

James Spencer was born in Maryland as a free Black man – NOT as a slave. Despite Maryland being a slave state, it had an equal population of slaves to free Black men. Most notable about James was his founding of a community called Freetown, a neighborhood in Glen Burnie, Maryland, which comprised of Free Black citizens. Freetown came as the result of a $1,500 purchase that James had made on December 26, 1845, for a fifty-six-acre tract of land.

Tony has enjoyed success and earned many accomplishments in other areas of his personal life and career.

“I was the first in my family to obtain an undergrad degree, as well as a master’s degree,” notes Tony. He also was in the United States Marine Corps, where he served as Presidential Honor Guard during the Nixon Administration in Washington, D.C, later serving as a sentry at the Annapolis Naval Station Marine Barracks with details as a docent at the United States Naval Academy in the John Paul Jones Crypt. After that he was in the Annapolis fire department for twenty-three years, where he was the first Black paramedic. He also was an arson investigator and the first National Fire Inspector.

He also became a pillar of his community by serving as a member and as vice president for Anne Arundel County Public School Board. He also served as a member on the Maryland State Arts Council, as well as Commissioners for: the Maryland State Fire Prevention Commission (2009-17), the city of Annapolis’ Arts in Public Places Commission (2017-18), Anne Arundel County Arts Council Commission (2018-23), and the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (2018-23).

Tony, who has appeared in the summer of 2024 as a guest, desires to take his experience to benefit the communities of Annapolis and the greater Anne Arundel County, through consulting. “My goal is to service those who are trying to do good things for their community,” corroborates Tony. “I do well with connecting folks, to help them get things done.” His experience is highlighted by his role in the area of Community Outreach in Annapolis under three mayors – Dean Johnson, Ellen Moyer, and Joshua Cohen.

More specifically, Tony seeks to use his experience and influence to focus on improving education in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. “My journey has been so educational, and I have an obligation to share it,” Tony confirms.

“It has been years since I have been on the school board – I was on from 1999 to 2004,” recalls Tony. “Although, I never really stopped working in the community because when you have certain things that you are good at, it has been what my life has been about.”

“Our country in terms of the quality education ranks eighty-fourth in the world – just above Turkey,” concerns Tony. “While it has changed, it is not where we need to be. I have seen students come from other countries with a GPA of over 4.0. We need to reach for that and beyond.”

“For instance, in kindergarten, have the students learn as much as possible, so that they could be better prepared by the first grade,” Tony shares. “Our models need to change how that is to be accomplished. Children also need to be at the table when it comes to school board meetings to hear what they have to say. They have the firsthand experience of a student looking toward the future.”

The most recent standing of the Anne Arundel County Public School System that they rank 40th in the world. Parents from around the country are reaching out to Anne Arundel County’s school system. The school district still strives for excellence every day.

“More opportunities need to be open to the masses, as opposed to a specific group of kids,” he adds. “For instance, STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, should have an ‘A’ added to it to become STEAM. The ‘A’ representing Art.”

“If we want to be number one, start with education,” Tony states.

“You are as strong as your weakest link!” concludes Tony, “Don’t brag about what you have done, unless you reach back to help someone else.”

Close Up Radio recently featured Tony Spencer in an interview with Doug Llewelyn on Monday January 6th at 10am Eastern

Listen to the Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-up-radio-welcomes-back-artist-tony-spencer/id1785721253?i=1000683065950
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-close-up-radio-242020413/episode/close-up-radio-welcomes-back-artist-255514605/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/46tUuKpryUdlcwomtwrkTg

For more information, please visit https://tjspencerarts.com/ and his page on Facebook

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
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