The Legendary Ingramettes Widely celebrated as the “First Family of Gospel Music” in Richmond, Virginia, The Legendary Ingramettes have been blowing the roof off performance stages for nearly six decades. The Ingramettes were originally formed by Evangelist “Mama” Maggie Ingram, born July 4, 1930, on Mulholland’s Plantation in Coffee County, Georgia, where she would later work the cotton and tobacco fields with her parents. Maggie began playing the piano and singing at an early age, and developed a great love for the church and gospel music. In 1961 Maggie moved herself and her five children to Richmond, Virginia, and there created Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes, a family singing group that became one of the most beloved groups in Richmond’s storied gospel tradition.
Maggie passed away in 2015 at the age of 84, but the group has continued to soar, led by the powerfully incomparable singing of her oldest daughter, Almeta Ingram-Miller, who is joined by Maggie’s granddaughter Cheryl Maroney-Yancey and daughter-in-law Carrie Jackson. Backed by their rock-solid house-shaking rhythm section, the Ingramettes continue to bring the electric energy and spirit of a Sunday morning service to the performance stage, enthralling diverse audiences at such prestigious venues and festivals as the Kennedy Center, the National Folk Festival, Floydfest, Strawberry Music Festival, and countless others across the US and abroad. Their 2012 release Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes: Live in Richmond won the Independent Music Awards Gospel Album of the Year, and their much-anticipated new release Take A Look in the Book , released in the spring of 2020 has garnered world-wide acclaim.
On June 28, 2022, The Legendary Ingramettes were named National Heritage Fellows by the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA National Heritage Fellowships is the nation's highest honor in folk and traditional arts. Each year since 1982, the program recognizes recipients' artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our nation's traditional arts heritage.
–Jon Lohman, Virginia State Folklorist