Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sun Ra Arkestra, Philadelphia Boys Choir, Adam Blackstone, and Lady B. are among 2026 Philly Music Alliance Walk of Fame honorees
Louise Williams Bishop, Pablo Batista, Hugh Panero, and Earl Young will also be honored with plaques on South Broad Street
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sun Ra Arkestra, the Philadelphia Boys Choir, Adam Blackstone, and Lady B. are among the musicians who will be inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame this year, and celebrated at a Kimmel Center gala on May 13.
Other honorees who will see their name on plaques placed in the cement on South Broad St. include Phantom of the Opera actor Hugh Panaro, DJ and Pennsylvania state representative Louise Williams Bishop, known as “the Gospel Queen of Philadelphia,” and percussionist Pablo Batista.
In addition, Earl Young, the drummer for Philadelphia International Records house band MFSB, and founder and leader of the disco group the Trammps will receive a lifetime achievement award.
“The Philadelphia Music Alliance’s Walk of Fame honors and recognizes those who have excelled in music while always recognizing and remembering their Philadelphia roots,” said Philadelphia Music Alliance chairman, Alan Rubens, in a news release statement.
“As we celebrate and honor this year’s inductees, we recognize the spectacular music that continues to shine bright across Philadelphia and beyond and serves as this City’s heart and soul.
Philadelphia Orchestra music and artistic director Nézet-Séguin was first hired as music director — a position the conductor also holds with the Metropolitan Opera and Orchestra Metropolitain in his native Montreal — in 2012. He is scheduled to conduct the orchestra with pianist and Curtis alum Lang Lang on Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 at Marian Anderson Hall on April 7. Nézet-Séguin a five-time Grammy winner, winning one most recently in 2025 for best compilation soundtrack for the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, which he worked on with Bradley Cooper.
The Sun Ra Arkestra’s induction will honor the late visionary composer and bandleader Herman “Sonny” Blount, the Afro-Futurist pioneer who expanded the boundaries of jazz and died in 1993. And the band he founded that is still based in Germantown and led by 101 year old saxophone and electronic valve instrument player Marshall Allen.
The Philadelphia Boys Choir bills itself as the preeminent boy choir in the U.S. and “America’s Ambassadors of Song.” Famous alumni include Broadway composer Benj Pasek and Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman. The choir is currently under the direction of former choir boy Jeffrey R. Smith.
Adam Blackstone is a Trenton born, University of the Arts graduate bass player, and bandleader who is a Grammy and NAACP image award winner. He has been go-to music director and collaborator for stars such as Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z Eminem, the Jonas Brothers and more.
Longtime Philly DJ Lady B., who was born Wendy Clark and started going by her Islamic name Bahiyyah as a teenager, was a prime influence on the growth of hip-hop locally and nationally. She advocated for Philly artists like Schoolly D and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and New Yorkers like Run-DMC and LL Cool J on her Power 99 Street Beat show. But she has also had an impact as an artist: her 1979 single “To The Beat Y’all” is considered the first Philadelphia rap record and the first hip-hop single to be released by a female artist.
Louise Williams Bishop, the “Gospel Queen,” also served as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1989 to 2015. She was a host and gospel music programmer for Philadelphia radio station WDAS in the 1960s, where she worked with her program director husband and deejay Jimmy Bishop, and went on to host the Louise Bishop Show for 49 years.
East Oak Lane native Hugh Panaro has had a 40-year stage career, making his Broadway debut in Les Miserables in 1987 and more recently starring in a Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd. He’s best known for playing the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, which he has performed in three different Broadway runs in a total of over 200 performances.
Pablo Batista grew up in Bethlehem, Pa. and came to Philadelphia to study at Temple University where he graduated in 1985. He got his start working with Grover Washington Jr. and Jean Carne while a student at Temple and has toured and recorded with Alicia Keys, Phillis Hyman, Jeffrey Osbourne, Regina Belle and H.E.R., Music Soulchild, Eddie Palmieri, and many others.
Earl Young, known as “the man who invented disco” is getting yet another plaque with his name on it set in the Broad Street concrete. He already has been honored five times. One with bassist Ronnie Baker and Norman Harris, as the rhythm section that powered the Sound of Philadelphia, one for his work with MFSB, one for the Trammps, and others for playing with Salsoul Orchestra and John Davis & the Monster Orchestra.
» READ MORE: Earl Young, ‘the man who invented disco,’ is getting a North Philly street named after him
The new insuctees will be added to the total of over 150 Walk of Fame honorees. The induction ceremony and gala will be held at the at the Kimmel on May 13 at 11:30 a.m., followed by the gala at 6 p.m.
It has not yet been determined where in South Broad the new plaques will be embedded.
Tickets to the gala are available at philadelphiamusicalliance.org. Proceeds benefit the PMA and its stated mission to preserve Philadelphia’s musical history, uplift emerging artists, and strengthen the city’s creative economy.