Brian Owens Soul presents “Duets with Dad” — a soulful celebration of faith, fatherhood, and freedom. Featuring Brian Owens with special guests Thomas Owens, Grammy Award-winning duo Louis York (Sheldon debut), and Malena Smith.

About Brian Owens

Brian Owens is a Ferguson, Missouri-based soul singer, songwriter, and producer whose music is rooted in three things he has never wavered on: faith, family, and fatherhood. Drawing on the deep tradition of Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, and Al Green, Owens has built a body of work that is distinctly his own — soulful, purposeful, and deeply connected to the community he calls home. His album Soul of Ferguson included a duet with five-time Grammy winner Michael McDonald, and his performance of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" alongside his father Thomas has surpassed 100 million views. Music Director and Creative-in-Residence at the World Chess Hall of Fame, community artist in residence at UMSL, and a longtime presence at the Sheldon Concert Hall, Brian Owens is not just a performer — he is a keeper of the soul tradition and a voice for his city.

About Thomas Owens

Thomas Owens is the man behind the music. A gifted vocalist who chose the Christian ministry over a professional singing career, he is the father, the foundation, and the first voice Brian Owens ever heard sing. Their relationship — father and son, preacher and artist, two men who found the sacred in the same songs — is the living heart of Duets with Dad. Together, their performance of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" moved across the internet and into the lives of more than 100 million people. Thomas Owens joining his son on the Sheldon Concert Hall stage is not a cameo. It is the whole point.

About Louis York

Louis York is the Grammy Award-winning duo of Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony — two of the most accomplished songwriter-producers of their generation, now fully unleashed as artists in their own right. Between them, they have written and produced hits for Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and John Legend, among many others. Formed in 2015 and based out of their Weirdo Workshop creative headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, Louis York describes their music as a new American soul — genre-bending, spiritually charged, and built to last. Notably, Chuck Harmony was born and raised in East St. Louis, Illinois, where he first learned to play music in the church. Their Sheldon Concert Hall debut on June 20, 2026 is a homecoming as much as it is a performance.

About Malena Smith

Malena Smith is a St. Louis-based singer, songwriter, and storyteller whose voice carries the kind of honesty that stops a room. Classically trained, with a musical range that moves effortlessly between soul, folk, pop, and jazz, she has shared stages with Michael Bublé and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and serves alongside Brian Owens as an Artist-in-Residence at the World Chess Hall of Fame. Her debut EP 27 in Maine — produced in part by Brian Owens — announced her arrival as a fully formed solo artist of rare depth and authenticity. On the Duets with Dad stage, Malena Smith brings both her voice and her story — a St. Louis artist, a collaborator, and a talent whose moment is now.