Tuesday, March 2, 2010

SFCV.org: “Oakland East Bay Symphony: 'Monumental Question, Partly Answered'”

[Michael Morgan (Photo from SFCV.org)]

Michael Morgan is Conductor and Music Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. AfriClassical mentioned him most recently on Feb. 23, 2010 when we excerpted a news article which recalled his 2001 visit to the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

February 26, 2010
By Kwami Coleman
“What does it mean to be an American? This question — provoked by the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s concert Friday — people have been asking in this country from jump, and we have in our collective memory a wide array of answers. Of course, to qualify the question we must understand what an American is in the first place, and here’s where things always become tricky. We all seem to know that to be an American is to expect just as much difference from your fellow citizen in the way of lived experience and personal outlook as similarity, but it’s precisely the degree of that difference that has led to both conflict and progress in this society.
"Michael Morgan
The arts have long been a domain in which American identities have been defined and redefined, proposed and contested (you’d think that the sheer diversity of perspectives in American art would force those with a narrower perspective to reconsider). And music has perhaps been the most idealized medium in the expression of diverse voices.
"This question — what does it mean to be an American? — was asked aloud, musically, and with a sense of humble urgency, by conductor and Music Director Michael Morgan and his OEBS, with their program at the Paramount Theatre titled 'Views of America.' On Friday’s program were staple pieces by Charles Ives and Duke Ellington, two American composers who might not share a chapter in the music history textbooks. These more-known works flanked an original, commissioned work by the pianist, composer, and bandleader Rebeca Mauleón that engaged the frequently undertold Afro-Cuban roots of American music, while simultaneously reminding listeners that American identity neither begins nor ends in the U.S." [Duke Ellington is profiled at AfriClassical.com]

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