Monday, October 14, 2019

Eric Conway: Morgan Choir performs concert on Homecoming Saturday night in DC!











Dr. Eric Conway writes:

On last Saturday, October 12, 2019, the Morgan State University Choir participated in a concert at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington DC. We performed music of Nolan Williams and Raymond Wise. The title of the concert was Ethereality Celestial Dreams & the Great Beyond: A choral/orchestral concert exploring the intersectionality of science and spirituality. The concert was presented by The National Museum of African American History & Culture’s Center for the Study of African American Religious Life and NEWorks Productions. The orchestra was comprised of mostly African-American orchestral musicians, from the region, assembled for this concert. 
This was a very big week at Morgan, as this was Homecoming weekend! The conflict was very unfortunate with many of the choir members not able to attend due to Homecoming duties, but I felt that this project was important enough for the choir to work with composer and conductor Nolan Williams, and learn some very fine new music around the subject of celestial dreams. Of course, one cannot talk about dreams in the African-American culture witthout referencing Langston Hughes. A centerpiece in one of Williams compositions was around Hughes' poem Dreams.

The evening was further elevated by having Metropolitan Opera Singer Denyce Graves host the evening. She was able to attend, as this was one of the few nights where she did not have to sing in their current production of Porgy and Bess. She provided great readings between the music which connected music with the evening’s theme.

The first piece on the program was by Morgan faculty member James Lee: Sukkot through Orion’s Nebulae. It was great to have our Morgan students see their professor displayed on a professional stage such as this. The piece was conducted by nationally acclaimed conductor, Julius Williams.

What a great evening of music-making! Please see attached a few pages from the evening’s program. Also, see some photos from the full day of rehearsal and performance. Also see links to snippets from our rehearsals below to get a sense the beauty of the music.

If you get the opportunity to attend a Nolan Williams concert, I think you will be blessed by the experience. 
Eric

--
We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle
************************************
Eric Conway, D.M.A.
Fine and Performing Arts Department, Chair
Morgan State University

No comments: