Documentary Featuring Pitzer Alumna Claudia Lennear ’06 Wins 2014 Academy Award

Claremont, Calif. (March 3, 2014) — 20 Feet from Stardom, which spotlights Pitzer alumna and singer Claudia Lennear ’06, won the 2014 Academy Award for Documentary Feature film. 20 Feet from Stardom tells the story of the often unheralded backup singers on some of the biggest songs, and behind some of the biggest musicians, of the last 50 years.

Claudia-Lennear '06
Claudia-Lennear ’06

Lennear began singing professionally after high school. She became an “Ikette” with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. In 20 Feet from Stardom, she is seen touring with the Rolling Stones, singing with David Bowie and performing with George Harrison in the historic Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden. She was allegedly the inspiration for the Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar. She can be heard on numerous recordings, including Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishman album and Leon Russell and the Shelter People.

20 Feet from Stardom premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Morgan Neville, it won the Best Documentary Feature at the 2014 Critics’ Choice Awards.

A New Resources student, Lennear graduated from Pitzer in 2006 with a degree in French.

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