Party like it’s 1999 when Marshall Charloff & The Purple xPeRIeNCE comes to the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center Jenkins Theatre in Benton Harbor at 8 p.m., Friday, October 25.
This five-piece group, which hails from Prince’s birthplace of Minneapolis, Minn., is the most celebrated tribute to Prince in the world, entertaining more than half a million fans to date with mega hits from the Prince catalog including “Purple Rain,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Kiss,” and “1999.”
The group was co-founded by Charloff and Matt “Doctor” Fink (keyboardist from Prince & The Revolution) in 2011, an era when Prince closely monitored the use of his art. Their vision was to deliver Prince’s music on the highest level, played live and untracked by skilled musicians, while paying respectful visual homage through costuming and likeness.
Immediately met with success and adoration from discerning Prince devotees, the band has been touring nationwide and internationally for over a decade and has performed for more than half-a-million fans.
In 2019, Marshall Charloff & The Purple xPeRIeNCE was officially licensed by the Prince Estate, followed up by the 2021 selection by the U.S. Department of State to be featured in the U.S.A. Pavilion of the World Expo in Dubai.
Minneapolis-native Charloff was raised in the epicenter of 1980s music production and cut his musical teeth working with superproducers John Fields and Steven “Funkytown” Greenberg. At age 19, Charloff, like Prince, was discovered and signed by producer Pepe Willie. Charloff is
featured on the 94 East album with Prince, where he plays guitar accompanying Prince on vocals.
In addition to his work with The Purple xPeRIeNCE, Charloff has had the honor of fronting 25 of the finest symphonies in North America, performing the music of Prince. He has been the feature of two full-length PBS Broadcasts; fronting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and fronting The Purple xPeRIeNCE in the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado.
Charloff headlined a Las Vegas residency, “Purple Piano: The World’s Only One-Man Tribute to Prince,” a highly engaging show in the style of Prince’s final tour, “Piano and a Microphone.” This production continues to tour nationwide, interspersed with full-band performances like the one that will be seen at the LMC Mendel Center.
Tickets for Marshall Charloff & The Purple xPeRIeNCE at the LMC Mendel Center are on sale now at www.TheMendelCenter.com/events
