Bio
Minister NEDELKA F. PRESCOD is a singer-songwriter, educator, licensed preacher and organizational consultant. She also expresses her artistry through the meditative practice of crafting beaded jewelry.
A multi-genre vocalist, Minister Prescod released three independent recording projects: “Manifest” (2008), “The Light” (2018) and “The Un-Silenced Voice” (2020) and has performed in venues and festivals around the world, such as Joe’s Pub in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Panama Jazz Festival, the Muka Music Center in Shanghai and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. She is the founder of New England Conservatory’s original iterations of the “African Heritage Ensemble,” “R&B Ensemble” and “Contemporary Gospel Ensemble.” Minister Prescod has been recognized for her artistry and community mindedness through music-making, specifically being awarded grants from The Boston Foundation and Brooklyn Arts Council, among others.
A strong advocate for the healing power of music, Minister Prescod founded multiple community initiatives such as the “Progression Community Youth Choir” in Brooklyn where she worked with youth in her spiritual and teaching communities to use music as a vehicle for activism on issues ranging from youth empowerment to food insecurity (“artivism”). Minister Prescod also co-founded “Conscious Uprising”, a series of independent artist events used as a platform for local artists to perform, promote their art, and share information and resources with the community on pressing social issues.
Minister Prescod has served as a DEI consultant at New England Conservatory and Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School/YDS where she spearheaded "The Sound of Andover Newton" project, an endeavor to expand and support the school’s music in worship experience. At YDS Minister Prescod also served as a student DEI Liaison between the DEI Office and the school community at large. In 2019, she created “The Un-Silenced Voice Project” to uncover and empower feminine and silenced voices (actual, artistic and communal) retracted by trauma and create pathways for healing through music, personal testimony and community dialogue.
A sought after teacher and coach, Minister Prescod has over 30 years of professional experience working in a range of educational settings. She began her teaching journey as a teenager volunteering in a summer program at St. Edmund's Church in Brooklyn working with alternately abled young people. For nearly two decades, Minister Prescod taught in NYC public schools as a full time music teacher and teaching artist, then transitioning into higher education, serving on faculty at New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA), while maintaining a private studio in Brooklyn, NY.
Minister Prescod holds a BS and MA in Music Education from New York University and CUNY Brooklyn College, respectively; an MM in Contemporary Improvisation (Contemporary Musical Arts) from New England Conservatory; and an MDiv from Yale Divinity School. Minister Prescod is a co-producer of the docu-series, “Black & Panamañian” (YouTube), and was a member and lead vocalist with the Abyssinian Baptist Church’s (NYC) music ministry and member of the church’s ministerial team where she was bestowed a license to preach, served as interim servant leader for the Abyssinian Institute of Christian Education and was a member of the Abyssinian Food Pantry Ministry.
Currently Minister Prescod is a performing and recording artist that has established her independent community music center, Musicolia, which serves the children and youth in her neighborhood. As a consultant, Minister Prescod works with educational and religious institutions to create and maximize programs and ministries within the institutions to better serve their communities and ground the reality of music as vital to human existence.
Minister Prescod’s love of creating beaded jewelry has evolved into “Innermost Beading by Nedelka” - her pop up boutique of custom designed pieces created with human-made, recycled and organic materials curated into wearable art. In conversation with her customers, each piece is constructed with prayers for deep inner healing, a mindfulness of the nature and healing power of colors, and with careful attention to bead count and the divine symbolism of numeric values.