Chicago Tribune
February 23, 2018
Rare are the classical singers who use their celebrity
cachet to help generate new repertory. One shining example is Lawrence
Brownlee, who regards the commissioning of music by living composers and
sharing it with audiences around the world an essential part of who he
is as a performing artist.
Even so, his involvement with
“Cycles of My Being,” the new song cycle he included in his recital
Thursday night at the DuSable Museum of African American History, was
motivated by something much deeper, something much more personal:
Brownlee and his collaborators, composer Tyshawn Sorey and poet Terrance
Hayes, wanted to express their feelings, and, crucially, how they are
perceived, as African-American men living in a racially divided America.
There can be no denying the worth or pertinence of such an
undertaking at a time when black men face acts of violence,
incarceration and death on a seemingly day-to-day basis. Classical music
has been remiss in addressing themes associated with the Black Lives
Matter movement, certainly to the extent that artists working in film,
theater, literature and visual art are doing.
And there
was no denying the palpable commitment that Brownlee, and his finely
supportive accompanist, pianist Myra Huang, brought to this Chicago
premiere of “Cycles of My Being.” The duo had taken part in the world
premiere Tuesday in Philadelphia, where it was presented with a slightly
larger instrumental accompaniment. Opera Philadelphia, where the singer
is artistic adviser, co-commissioned the work along with Carnegie Hall
and Lyric Unlimited, which sponsored Thursday’s performance.
The cycle of six songs, some to rewritten sonnets by Hayes, a 2014
MacArthur Fellow, and poems by Brownlee himself, steers clear of
politics, touching instead on matters of hate, religious faith, black
consciousness and, ultimately, hope and unity. Song and speech mingle in
songs like the fourth, in which the singer declares, “You don’t know
me. Still you hate me.” The overall tone is more of questioning that
anger. As Brownlee has said in interviews, there are no raised fists
here.
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