I am thrilled to announce that my orchestral work, Soul of Remembrance, will be performed in the newly-renovated David Geffen Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center on March 3, 2023. The sold-out performance is part of an exciting partnership between Interlochen Center for the Arts and the New York Philharmonic, one of the best orchestras in the world.
The theme of the evening is “liberation,” and students from the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra will play side-by-side with musicians from the New York Philharmonic, many of whom are Interlochen alumni.
Interlochen’s Dr. Leslie B. Dunner, who has conducted major orchestras around the world, will conduct the combined orchestras.
The program will feature works by four living black composers:
- Unburied, Unmourned, Unmarked: Requiem for Rice, in which John Wineglass explores the history of enslaved people in America;
- Equality, a work set to Maya Angelou’s poetry by Interlochen alumnus Jonathan Bailey Holland;
- Valerie Coleman’s Umoja, named for the Swahili word for “unity,” which denotes the first day of Kwanzaa; and
- Soul of Remembrance, my historical piece about enslaved Africans struggling to understand their new lives in the U.S. and starting their long march to be recognized as fully human.
Soul of Remembrance is the second movement of my orchestral suite, Five Movements in Color, and the scores for all five movements are available in my online store.
Conducted by Leslie B. Dunner on Albany Records, 2010. (6 minutues)
I am especially pleased that Dr. Dunner will be conducting this piece at Lincoln Center, since he did an excellent job of conducting the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble for their recording of the full suite in 2010. Their recordings of all five movements are available on YouTube.
The Lincoln Center program will also include the world premiere of Mukti, a multi-disciplinary piece created by the Interlochen students. “Mukti” is the Hindi word for liberation, and the piece explores liberation movements throughout history from all over the world.
Interlochen Center for the Arts will also announce the inaugural class of NY Phil Interlochen Scholars, 30 New York youth who have been chosen to attend Interlochen Arts Camp on full-tuition scholarships this summer.