AfriClassical

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Colour of Music Festival Perform at I'On Chapel/Mt Pleasant Sat May 21

Colour of Music Festival at I’On Chapel Mount Pleasant

Return to I’On for a Special Evening of Chamber Music Saturday, May 21

May 11, 2022, Charleston SC —In tandem with a concert event at the Charleston Library Society May 19, the Colour of Music Festival will return to I’On Village in Mount Pleasant SC at I’On Village Chapel, Saturday, May 21, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. for a special performance showcasing leading Black classical artists.

German-born violinist Anyango Yarbo-Davenport will be featured as part of an evening of duos and quartets in I’On’s picturesque village community east of the Cooper. The evening will include a duo for violin and viola by John Halvorsen, Zoltán Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello Op. 7 and works by two black composers―Valerie Coleman’s Umoja for String Quartet and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s String Quartet No. I “Calvary―to honor the many black communities surrounded by the Mount Pleasant and Awendaw communities.

Since 2013, the Colour of Music Festival offers a musical kaleidoscope highlighting the impact and historical significance of Black classical composers and performers on American and world culture. The Colour of Music Festival began with performances at various venues throughout historic Charleston and has grown to debut at leading collegiate venues and performance halls in Atlanta, Columbia, SC, Houston, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, Richmond, Nashville, Sacramento and Tulsa, OK.

“Dating back to 2014, the Colour of Music Festival was among several music entities that inaugurated the I’ON Village Concert Series. I am elated to produce what I hope will be many more events in partnership with the I’ON Trust whose mission is to bring the I’ON Village and surrounding communities together through music,” said Lee Pringle, Founder and Artistic Director, Colour of Music Festival and community resident.

I’On Chapel Mount Pleasant | Colour of Music Festival Quartet

Saturday, May 21, 2022, 7:30 p.m.

352 North Shelmore Blvd, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464

General Admission Tickets: $35 adult; $25 senior; $15 student

online: www.colourofmusic.org

by phone 888.512.9835 Monday-Saturday 9am-9pm; Sunday 9am-8pm EST

PLEASE NOTE COVID-19 PATRON ADVISORY: Mask are recommended. If not in the possession of one, patrons will be issued KN95 mask to be worn throughout the performance.

The Colour of Music Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Endowment for the Arts

About the Colour of Music Festival

Based in Charleston, South Carolina and organized in 2013, the Colour of Music Festival, Inc. presents a diverse classical repertoire of baroque, classical and 20^th century music at the highest of musical standards to diverse audiences throughout the Lowcountry, regionally, and nationally. The Festival has also presented performances in Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Houston, TX, Nashville, TN, Richmond, VA, Pittsburgh, PA, Columbia, SC, Sacramento CA, and Tulsa, OK.

www.colourofmusic.org

CleveScene.com: Tickets for Cleveland Orchestra's Rescheduled MLK Celebration Concert Will Be Available Saturday Morning

Photo by Roger Mastrioianni/Cleveland Orchestra

The free concert will now take place in June

Cleveland Scene

By Vince Grzegorek

May 11, 2022

Those who don't score tickets or can't attend in person can catch the livestream on the Orchestra’s Adella app, Adella.Live, or on YouTube at youtube.com/clevelandorchestra. The concert will also be broadcast live on 90.3 WCLV Classical 104.9, 89.7 WKSU, on ideastream.org, and on the Ideastream Public Media app.

On tap will be works by prominent Black composers including Dolores White, Mary D. Watkins, Carlos Simon, Brian Raphael Nabors, William Grant Still, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Here's the schedule of performances:

DOLORES WHITE Celebration

MARY D. WATKINS Soul of Remembrance
TRADITIONAL Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit
TRADITIONAL Deep River
CARLOS SIMON Fate Now Conquers
BRIAN RAPHAEL NABORS Iubiolo
TRADITIONAL Cert’n’y Lord
TRADITIONAL Lord I Want to Be a Christian
TRADITIONAL Seek the Lord
WILLIAM GRANT STILL Summerland from Three Visions
TRADITIONAL He’s Got the Whole World
TRADITIONAL A City Called Heaven
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Ballade
JOHN ROSAMOND JOHNSON Lift Every Voice and Sing

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

NashvilleSymphony.org: Free Community Concerts at Local Parks June 7, 8, 9, 11 & 12 include Ballade in A Minor by Samuel Colerdge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

The Nashville Symphony

Enjoy an evening of music under the stars when the Nashville Symphony comes to your local park! Fun for the whole family, this FREE community concert will include classical and popular favorites, along with prize giveaways and more. Pack a picnic and come celebrate the summer with us!

PROGRAM

Shostakovich – Festive Overture
Dvorák – No. 7, “Allegro vivace,” from Slavonic Dances Nos. 5-8
Saint-Saëns – Danse macabre
Coleridge-Taylor – Ballade in A Minor
Sousa – Washington Post March
Copland – “Hoe Down” from Rodeo
Rodgers –The Sound of Music selections for orchestra
Williams – Flying Theme from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Williams – Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark

Monday, May 9, 2022

Chicago Sinfonietta: ICYMI: A surprise reveal is coming...May 14th (Naperville) and May 16th (Downtown Chicago)

Avante-garde fashion meets celebrated music this May at the concert hall. Sculptor and designer Carley Brandeaux is collaborating with Chicago Sinfonietta to produce a spectacular living work of art that will premier as violinist Melissa White takes the stage at our spring concert.

Brandeaux, a native of North Carolina, completed a Master of Design degree in Fashion, Body and Garment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied under the direction of artist Nick Cave. She was also the recipient of SAIC's highest recognition, the New Artist Society Scholarship.

The artwork was painstakingly crafted with hand painted dupioni silk and a one-of-a-kind linen/rayon blend, woven by Emily Winter at Chicago's very own The Weaving Mill. Custom made for Melissa White, the dynamic dress required multiple fittings that took into account the expressive movement of the violinist and led to a design that is as much sculpture as it is fashion.

More than just on-stage attire – the gown is part of the performance of Chen Gang's / He Zhanhao's beloved Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto and will be revealed in stages throughout the piece as White plays, thus becoming an integral part of the performance.

During the performance, the stages are like that of a butterfly's development, starting with a chrysalis, then unwrapping to reveal the adult butterfly in all its beauty.

Says Brandeaux, “The one thing I want the audience to know, I want them to know it’s alive”.

The markings and colors of the garment are drawn from the American Painted Lady butterfly. When researching this project, Brandeaux was looking to butterflies in the Midwest region, as a way to connect the music to where it's being performed. When hiking one summer afternoon, she saw an American Painted Lady butterfly, and was able to identify it because of this project.

Struck by its intricate markings and how different it looked with every movement, this became the inspiration for the dress. Said the designer, "Underneath the greens and yellows there are shiny flickers of blues, reds, oranges and browns throughout. The color mixing is a lot like painting but perhaps even more visually intriguing!"

Violinist Melissa White, an accomplished soloist, frequent guest with Chicago Sinfonietta, and founding member of the Harlem Quartet, was also a huge inspiration to the artist:“With Melissa, there’s some sort of balance between energetic and bright and calm...I'm excited to see how it looks on stage with lighting and Melissa's movements.”

The collaboration is another stunning first for Chicago Sinfonietta, and the classical music industry. While garments have long been designed for singers, musicians, and conductors as stage attire, this is believed to be the first time a creation has been designed specifically to be part of a violin soloist's performance.

SEE THE REVEAL AT LIMITLESS HORIZON
May 14th (Naperville) and May 16th (Downtown Chicago)

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Composer Carlos Simon to release 'Requiem for the Enslaved' June 17 on Decca

"What does it mean if your body was never free?
What happens to the soul of the slave if the shackles release?"– Marco Pavé

New work commissioned by Georgetown University for spoken word, ensemble, and piano honors those who suffered during the slave trade years

Requiem for the Enslaved will be released June 17 as a physical and digital album on Decca Label Group

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STkvmcO5jlQ

Requiem for the Enslaved Story

Decca is proud to announce the signing of US composer Carlos Simon and the release of his new album Requiem for the Enslaved. The title work sees Simon infuse the traditional Catholic requiem with music from African American spirituals to create a haunting piece for chamber ensemble and spoken word.

The album’s central piece, Requiem for the Enslaved, with text by Marco Pavé, was commissioned by Georgetown University, where Simon is currently Assistant Professor of Composition, following a decision by its student body in 2020. A majority voted to establish a reparations fund to be paid to descendants of 272 enslaved people who were sold for $115,000 by the Maryland Jesuits, the founders of Georgetown, in 1838 to rescue the university from bankruptcy. This work honours the passing of those people purchased and sold by the founders. Upon receiving the commission, Simon visited the Louisiana cotton plantation that purchased the enslaved people and delved through the Georgetown archives for historical research as he began work on the piece. The album’s cover is inspired by this location.

Carlos Simon says of the work, “I’m so grateful to be joining the Decca family and to be finally releasing this project. It is my hope that I not only honour the men, women and children sold into slavery, but also recognize that systemic racism is still ever present in our society.”

Alongside the full 50-minute performance of Requiem for the Enslaved, the album features three reflective bonus tracks reworking musical material from the piece. Simon, an esteemed pianist, performs himself, along with trumpeter MK Zulu.

Simon, the son of a New Orleans preacher, draws on both his gospel music heritage and his training in Western composition. Requiem for the Enslaved adapts the ten-movement requiem form, featuring spoken word by spoken word and hip-hop artist Marco Pavé, which draws from the West African griot and jali legacy of storytelling. Echoes of Gregorian chant blend into Simon’s distinctive neoromantic compositional voice, performed by the pioneering Boston-based ensemble Hub New Music (violin, flute, cello and clarinet) and trumpeter MK Zulu. Overlapping, multi-cultural meaning is packed into the work. Melodic cells from the spiritual “Oh When The Saints Go Marching In”, a hymn tune often heard played by a second line funeral procession in New Orleans, are woven into the requiem. In a powerful nod to both the bell that rings to direct academic life at Georgetown, and the bells that rang to summon the enslaved people to work on the Louisiana cotton plant, an evocative bell ring reoccurs throughout Simon’s Requiem.

Saturday, May 7, 2022

Music Institute of Chicago: Chorale Performs African-American, African-Latin Works, a free concert Sunday, June 5 at 3 PM, Nichols Concert Hall, Evanston

The Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, conducted

by Daniel Wallenberg with Gregory Shifrin on

piano, concludes its 2021–22 season with From

Africa, a free concert Sunday, June 5 at 3 p.m.

at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue,

Evanston. The performance also will be available

via livestream.

The program features compositions by

African-American and African-Latin American

composers, including Nathaniel Dett, William

Grant Still, Florence Price, Thomas Dorsey, Bobbie

McFerrin, and Miguel Matamorros, and songs from

Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda.

Soloists include Music Institute voice faculty

member Rae-Myra Hilliard and guest Tramaine

Parker. Guest conductor Bryan Johnson shares

conducting duties with Wallenberg. Also

joining the Chorale is the Jewish Reconstructionist

Congregation Choir.

Nichols Concert Hall is currently operating at full capacity. For the
most up-to-date protocols related to COVID-19, visit
musicinst.org/covid-policy-nichols-concert-hall.

The Music Institute of Chicago Chorale

performs From Africa,
a free concert, Sunday, June 5 at 3 p.m.
at Nichols Concert Hall,

1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston.
No advance reservations are necessary.
Free access to the livestream will be available

at musicinst.org/chorale.
All programming is subject to change.

Music Institute of Chicago Chorale

The Music Institute of Chicago Chorale is

a community chorus that provides an

opportunity for adult singers with prior

experience to study and perform the

best in sacred and secular choral music.

Now in its 34th year, the Chorale has

one continuing goal: to perform the

finest sacred and secular choral

music with the highest of standards

in a community setting. Under the

leadership of Conductor Daniel

Wallenberg, the Chorale has developed

a wide range of repertoire, including

motets, madrigals, part-songs, folk

songs, and larger choral-orchestral

works by Bach, Beethoven, Haydn,

Mozart, Duruflé, and many others.

Throughout the years, the Chorale

has collaborated with local choirs

and symphony orchestras and has

produced two fully costumed

Elizabethan madrigal dinners. In

addition, the Chorale has collaborated

several times with the Music Institute’s

voice faculty for concerts of opera and

Broadway music.

Music Institute of Chicago

The Music Institute of Chicago leads

people toward a lifelong engagement

with music through unparalleled

teaching, exceptional performances,

and valuable service initiatives that

educate, inspire, and build strong,

healthy communities. Since its

founding in 1931, the Music

Institute’s commitment to innovation,

access, and excellence has served

as an important community resource

and helps to ensure music is

available to everyone. Each year,

the Music Institute provides

personalized music instruction to

more than 1,500 students, regardless of

age, level of experience, or financial

means, across eight Community Music

School locations in Chicago,

Downers Grove, Evanston, Lake

Forest, Lincolnshire, and Winnetka,

as well as online. In addition, the Music

Institute brings music education, arts

curriculum integration, professional

development, and music

performance and engagement

opportunities to thousands in the

Chicago area; offers scholarship

opportunities to students in its

Community School and its Academy, a

nationally recognized training center

for highly gifted pre-college pianists

and string players; and (pre-

pandemic) welcomes more than

15,000 visitors annually for

performances, master classes, and

special events at Nichols Concert Hall.

For information, visit musicinst.org.

Top photo: Music Institute of Chicago Chorale courtesy of the Music Institute of Chicago.
Middle photo group clockwise from top: Daniel Wallenberg by David Joel and the following, all courtesy of the artists: Tramaine Parker, Rae-Myra Hilliard, Bryan Johnson.

Copyright © 2022 Music Institute of Chicago, All rights reserved.

William Grant Still Music announces new digital fine arts broadcast entity, WGSM-DB, which will soon begin operations and streaming

William Grant Still (1895-1978)

(Credit: Carl VanVechten)

WGSM-DB
fine arts internet radio
The Virtual Home of William Grant Still
PO Box 643
South Haven, MI 49090

On May 7, 2022, at 8:33 AM, William Grant Still Music <discovermusic@williamgrantstill.com> wrote:

May 7, 2022

Dear Friends,

In this year of 2022, which marks the 127th birthday of William Grant Still, William Grant Still Music is delighted to announce the birth of our new digital fine arts broadcast entity, WGSM-DB, which will soon begin operations and streaming.

WGSM-DB, in collaboration with Judith Anne Still and William Grant Still Music, will be the official virtual home of the music of William Grant Still and of other minority composers and women composers, as well as the mouthpiece for the William Grant Still Foundation. WGSM-DB is owned and operated by its distinguished General Manager, Jack Perlstein, a veteran public radio producer and director since 1973.

To stay informed as WGSM-DB prepares to begin streaming, sign up at wgsm.db by sending an E-mail to wgsm.db@gmail.com. This communication will reach Jack Perlstein Productions, WGSM-DB Fine Arts Radio, South Haven, MI 49090-1850.

Judith Anne Still states that it is the goal of WGSM to dominate Classical Broadcasting from 2022 forward with the most appealing and most uplifting concert music available. Other broadcasting entities who have not taken William Grant Still into account, will learn the error of their ways, because William Grant Still now sells more music than any other American composer, and the reviews are incredible. Ms. Still challenges broadcasters with a promise to take over the field with works that have been segregated and ignored for decades. She throws down the glove and welcomes competition. It is time for the idea (that there is such a thing as Race) to disappear from the intellectual landscape. Adam and Eve were Africans.

Judith Anne Still, owner of William Grant Still Music for 42 years.

Owner: Judith Anne Still
William Grant Still Music
809 W. Riordan Rd., Suite 100, Box 109
Flagstaff, AZ 86001-0810

Phone : (928) 526-9355
Fax : (928) 526-0321

Email : discovermusic@williamgrantstill.com
Website: www.williamgrantstillmusic.com

Friday, May 6, 2022

Sergio A. Mims - Composer and conductor Andre J Thomas named as London Symphony Orchestra Associate Artist

Andre J Thomas

Sergio A. Mims writes:

Composer and conductor Andre J Thomas was appointed today for a three year term as an Associate Artist for the London Symphony Orchestra

Later this month Mr Thomas will lead the LSO along with "the voices of gospel and community choirs from across London in a celebration of African-American gospel, spiritual and classical music to nourish the soul"

https://lso.co.uk/whats-on/icalrepeat.detail/2022/05/29/2192/-/andre-j-thomas-lift-every-voice.html

The LSO in its press statement about the appointment said: Associate Artists are musicians with distinct influences, quality and style that add diversity and richness to the LSO, creating their own programs in collaboration with the Orchestra and contributing to the repertoire choices for other programs throughout the Season.