Panama City Music Association

Panama City Music Association The Panama City Music Association is a leading musical arts organization. Our shows are performed at the Nelson Auditorium at Bay HIgh School

It shapes the local culture by promoting and celebrating the power of music, bringing top-quality performances to the community, and creating inspiring and engaging experiences.

Today is Juneteenth.The day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally received word that they were free. ...
06/19/2026

Today is Juneteenth.

The day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally received word that they were free. It is a day of celebration, of reflection, and of gratitude.
And it is, in so many ways, a music holiday.

African American music has always been more than entertainment. It has been survival. It has been resistance. It has been joy claimed loudly in the face of everything trying to silence it. The spirituals sung in the fields. The blues that turned pain into something beautiful. The jazz that rewrote what freedom could sound like. The soul, the funk, the gospel, the hip-hop.

Every generation finding a new way to say we are here, we are alive, and we have something to say.

American music is Black music. That is not an opinion. It is history.

Today we celebrate freedom. We celebrate resilience. We celebrate the art that came from it and the artists who gave it to the world.

Happy Juneteenth. 🖤❤️💚

👉 If you have been following our African American Music Appreciation Month series, thank you for celebrating these legends with us. There are more still to come this month.

This one makes us smile just thinking about it.Stevie Wonder.Born six weeks premature in 1950. Lost his sight as a newbo...
06/18/2026

This one makes us smile just thinking about it.

Stevie Wonder.

Born six weeks premature in 1950. Lost his sight as a newborn. Signed to Motown at age eleven. Had his first number one hit at thirteen. By twenty-five he had produced four consecutive Grammy Album of the Year winners, a record that still stands today.

He plays piano, harmonica, drums, bass, and synthesizer. He writes. He produces. He arranges. By nearly any measure, one of the most complete musicians who has ever lived.

Superstition. Sir Duke. Isn't She Lovely. Signed, Sealed, Delivered. Higher Ground. You Are the Sunshine of My Life.

Stevie moved through funk, soul, pop, R&B, gospel, and jazz naturally because the music simply lived in him that completely.

John Legend has called him a north star. Bruno Mars' entire musical identity, the horns, the groove, the unashamed joy, is in direct conversation with Stevie Wonder. Beyoncé, Pharrell, Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran. The reach is endless.

But more than influence, what Stevie gave the world is something rarer.

Music that makes people genuinely happy. Not distracted. Not entertained. Happy.
Almost nobody does it better.

👉 What's your favorite Stevie Wonder song? Drop it below. We have a feeling the comments are going to be a whole playlist.

There's a specific feeling you get when live music hits just right.It's not quite like anything else.The room gets quiet...
06/17/2026

There's a specific feeling you get when live music hits just right.

It's not quite like anything else.

The room gets quieter somehow, even though the sound is getting louder. Strangers lean forward together. Something unlocks in your chest that you didn't even know was closed.

You can't get that from a playlist. You can't stream it. You can't download it.

You have to be in the room.

👉 We're building a season that's going to give Panama City a lot of those moments. Make sure you're following this page so you don't miss the announcement, and share this with someone who needs more of that feeling in their life.

📸: Boo Media

African American Music Appreciation Month continues. Today's artist doesn't just move you.She changes you.Nina Simone.Sh...
06/16/2026

African American Music Appreciation Month continues. Today's artist doesn't just move you.

She changes you.

Nina Simone.

She wanted to be a classical pianist. She applied to the Curtis Institute of Music and was rejected, a decision she believed was rooted in race. That rejection redirected her life, and in doing so, redirected the course of music.

She became a singer, a pianist, a songwriter, an activist, and a force of nature who refused to separate art from truth.

Feeling Good. I Put a Spell on You. Ain't Got No / I Got Life. To Be Young, Gifted and Black.

Nina Simone's music lived where jazz, blues, classical, folk, and soul collapsed into each other. There were no clean edges. Just feeling, poured directly into the piano and the microphone without apology.

She sang about joy. She sang about rage. She sang about what it costs to be human in a world that doesn't always treat everyone as human.

Her influence runs deep. Lauryn Hill. Alicia Keys. Lana Del Rey. Kanye West sampled her. Muse built an anthem around Feeling Good. Every artist who brings their full complicated self to their music is following a path Nina carved.

She was never easy. She was never small. She was extraordinary.

👉 If you've never really listened to Nina Simone, start with Feeling Good. Share this post with someone who needs her music today and follow our page.

We say we do this for Panama City.But honestly? Panama City does it for us.The packed houses. The standing ovations. The...
06/15/2026

We say we do this for Panama City.

But honestly? Panama City does it for us.

The packed houses. The standing ovations. The kids seeing their first live show with their eyes wide open. The couples making it their date night, season after season. The folks who've had passes for decades and still show up like it's opening night every single time.

You make this worth it.

Thank you. From the bottom of our very musical hearts.

👉 If PCMA has given you a night you still think about, we'd love to hear it. Share your favorite memory in the comments. If you have a friend who hasn't been to a show yet, now is a great time to tell them what they're missing.

📸: Boo Media

Music trivia time! 🎵Which legendary rock band of the 1970s was famous for fusing electric guitars with a full string sec...
06/12/2026

Music trivia time! 🎵

Which legendary rock band of the 1970s was famous for fusing electric guitars with a full string section, violins, violas, and cellos, creating a sound unlike anything else on the radio?

First person to get it right wins bragging rights and our eternal respect. 🏆

Drop your answer below. ⬇️

This one is impossible to talk about without turning up the volume.James Brown.The Godfather of Soul. The Hardest Workin...
06/11/2026

This one is impossible to talk about without turning up the volume.

James Brown.

The Godfather of Soul. The Hardest Working Man in Show Business. A performer who played with such intensity his shows came with a cape routine, because by the end of the night, he needed help offstage just to come back and do one more song.

He wasn't performing. He was burning.

I Got You (I Feel Good). Papa's Got a Brand New Bag. It's a Man's Man's Man's World. S*x Machine. Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud.

James Brown invented funk.

He took rhythm and made it the entire point. Not the melody, not the lyrics, the groove itself. The beat. He built a sound so infectious that musicians have been chasing it for sixty years.

Here is how you measure his influence: he is the most sampled musician in recorded history.

Prince. Michael Jackson. Jay-Z. Public Enemy. Kendrick Lamar. His fingerprints are on decades of music across genres that didn't exist when he was in his prime.

When you feel that irresistible urge to move when a song hits right? That's James Brown's fault. In the best possible way.

👉 Who introduced you to James Brown? Drop it in the comments and share this post. The Godfather deserves every bit of his flowers.

Before the Marina Civic Center. Before the Barbara W. Nelson Fine Arts Center.PCMA was already here.We got our start per...
06/10/2026

Before the Marina Civic Center. Before the Barbara W. Nelson Fine Arts Center.

PCMA was already here.

We got our start performing at the Bay High auditorium because Panama City deserved world-class music even then, and we weren't going to wait around for the perfect venue.

That was 1941.

84 years later, we're still the oldest presenter in the area. Still the only local organization that brings Opera to this community. Still run almost entirely by volunteers who love this city and believe it deserves the best.

Some things don't change.

👉 If you've been coming to PCMA shows for years, we want to hear from you. Drop your favorite memory in the comments. How long have you been with us?

Today we celebrate the woman they called the First Lady of Song.Ella Fitzgerald.Discovered at an Apollo Theater amateur ...
06/09/2026

Today we celebrate the woman they called the First Lady of Song.

Ella Fitzgerald.

Discovered at an Apollo Theater amateur night in Harlem at just 17 years old. She was supposed to dance. When she opened her mouth to sing instead, the entire room stopped.

That was 1934. The world never quite recovered.

Ella had a voice that operated outside the normal rules of what a human voice could do. Perfect pitch. A three-octave range. S**t singing so fluid and inventive it was essentially improvised jazz composition happening in real time.

Summertime. Dream a Little Dream of Me. How High the Moon. Cheek to Cheek.

She recorded over 200 albums and won 13 Grammy Awards. Her versions of the American songbook became the standard everyone else was measured against.

Her influence is everywhere. In Ariana Grande's vocal runs. In the silky precision of Beyoncé's control. In Laufey, who has built an entire career on bringing jazz back to a generation that didn't know they were ready for it. In Billie Eilish's whisper-close intimacy with a microphone. Even pop singers who have never heard the word "s**t" are using techniques Ella Fitzgerald pioneered. She set the standard so high that artists are still climbing toward it today.

👉 Drop your favorite Ella song in the comments. June is African American Music Appreciation Month and these artists deserve every moment of recognition we can give them. Follow our page all month so you don't miss a single legend we're celebrating.

Here's something most people don't know about PCMA.We're almost entirely volunteer-run.The people who plan the seasons, ...
06/08/2026

Here's something most people don't know about PCMA.

We're almost entirely volunteer-run.

The people who plan the seasons, coordinate the performers, welcome you at the door, and keep this organization alive after 84 years, they do it because they love Panama City and they believe this community deserves great music.

No big staff. No corporate backing. Just people who care, showing up year after year.

That's something worth celebrating.

Thank you to our incredible board and volunteers. You are the reason this works.

👉 Want to support the people who make this possible? The best thing you can do is share this post, tell a friend about PCMA, and stay tuned for our new season announcement. A full house is the best thank-you we know.

Address

Panama City, FL

Telephone

+18502361260

Website

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