Baritone Kenneth Overton
On Site Opera: GRAMMY WINNING BARITONE KENNETH OVERTON LEADS MUSICAL WALKING TOUR OF BLACK MUSIC HISTORY THROUGH NEW YORK CITY STREETS NOW THROUGH JULY 31
A Self-Guided Live or Virtual App-Based Experience To Explore Landmarks in Lower Manhattan, Midtown and Harlem
NEW YORK, May 21, 2021– On Site Opera, New
York’s pioneering opera company rooted in site-specific storytelling
and the immersive experience, is bringing music back to the streets of
New York City with The Road We Came, a three-neighborhood musical walking tour that explores Black music history, now-July 31, 2021. In collaboration with GRAMMY winning baritone and the project’s featured soloist Kenneth Overton, pianist Kevin J. Miller, award-winning biographer and Harlem historian Eric K. Washington who
delivers the project’s narration, On Site Opera brings their signature
production style to the historical neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan,
Midtown and Harlem to connect audiences to a musical timeline that
begins with New York City’s earliest Black inhabitants and ends with the
2021 debut of the first African American composer at the Metropolitan
Opera. With a story arc that can be enjoyed in a suggested order to tell
an impactful narrative, or enjoyed singularly in any order, each
self-guided tour will be approximately a 90-minute-long immersive
musical experience that patrons can access through a walking tour app to
experience tours in person or virtually from their mobile device.
The project’s Lower Manhattan 3.2-mile
tour begins at the solemn African Burial Ground National Monument and
will include several important locations in the city’s abolitionist
history of the 19th century; the residence of one of the most prominent
“conductors” of the Underground Railroad and the Former Colored School
No. 4, which was opened in 1884 under the sanction of New York’s Governor Grover Cleveland. The 2.5-mile Midtown Tour starts in Hell’s Kitchen and traces the African American musical experience through the early to the mid-20th century.
From the old streets of San Juan Hill to Central Park and Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts, the tour features the music and texts of
many influential and groundbreaking artists. The music of both the
city’s recital halls and the dance halls will be featured on this tour,
with special focus placed on the important historical performances by
African American artists at Carnegie Hall and looking toward the
significance of Terence Blanchard’s 2021
Metropolitan Opera debut, where he will be the first African American
composer to be presented by the world-renowned company. Lastly, the
2.5-mile Harlem Tour brings
audiences uptown to explore the great Harlem Renaissance—a time when
African American achievements in art, music and literature flourished.
Beginning at the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, the
tour also makes stops at the home of renowned literary lion and social activist of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes and Strivers Row, that became the home to many notable African American composers, dancers, doctors and more.
“The
African American presence is inextricably woven into the fabric of New
York City’s storied past,” explains Eric K. Washington, the project’s
historian and narrator. “The Road We Came offers
a novel way to interpolate many of the missing threads of the Black
experience so long omitted.” he continues. “Walking tours are often a
first sampling of a more complex history to be plumbed, and I’m hoping
audiences walk away with a host of new names, places and events they
just can’t get enough of.” Baritone Kenneth Overton adds, “The project
is quite a musical journey. With
over 25 pieces we will be showcasing Negro spirituals, art songs and
opera by some of the world's greatest Black composers. I've been able to
discover and rediscover some incredible composers both living and dead,
men and women, contemporary and classic.”
The musical series is co-produced and filmed by Ryan and Tonya McKinny’s Keep the Music Going Productions.
PERFORMANCE and TICKETING INFORMATION
All tours will be available to purchase and experience at any time between now and July 31, 2021.
Individual tours will be available for $25 each, or all three for $65 and available for purchase https://osopera.org/productions/theroadwecame/
The Lower Manhattan Tour (approx.
90 min) will begin at the African Burial Ground National Monument at
the corner of Duane Street and Elk Street, and end at the Former Colored
School No. 4, located at 128 W 17th Street. The African Burial Ground National Monument is accessible by the 4, 5 and 6 trains to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall, the N, R, W to City Hall, and the A, C and 1, 2, 3 trains to Chambers Street.
The Midtown Tour (approx. 90 min) will begin at St.
Benedict the Moor Church at 342 W 53rd St, and end at the site of the
Silent Protest Parade of 1917 at the corner of 5th Ave and E 57th St.
St. Benedict the Moor Church is accessible by the A, C, E, 1 and 2
trains to 50th Street, B, D, and E trains to 7th Avenue, 1, 2, A, B, C and D trains to 59th Street/Columbus Circle, and the N, Q, R and W trains to 57th Street.
The Harlem Tour (approx. 90 min) will begin at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at 515 Malcolm X Blvd, and end at the James Williams House at 226 W 138th St. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is accessible by the A, B, C, 2 and 3 trains to W135th Street.
All tours will be accessible through The Road We Came app with a link and access code provided after checkout.
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ABOUT ON SITE OPERA
Founded
in 2012, On Site Opera is the leading presenter of site-specific operas
in non- traditional venues throughout New York City. Rooted in
collaboration and storytelling, On Site Opera celebrates the connection
between artist and audience through highly-curated experiences led by
seasoned opera artists and bold and innovative creative teams. To date, OSO has produced 18 operas in as many unique locations to critical acclaim, including Shostakovich’s The Tale of The Silly Baby Mouse using large-scale puppets in performances for families at the Bronx Zoo; Gershwin’s Blue Monday in the historic Cotton Club of Harlem; and Rameau’s Pygmalion in
Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, which explored new technology in opera
through the use of Google Glass supertitles. Each production invites New
Yorkers to explore their city in new and unique ways, while cultivating
a new generation of opera audiences.