Next up in the Amplifying Black Voices series:
"A Conversation Still Needed"
with Jonathan Q. Berryman, April 25, at 4pm
A Conversation Still Needed...
Join Jonathan Q. Berryman, Director of the Heritage Chorale of New Haven, Coro Allegro, and guests for powerful conversation and moving music, as we look at William Grant Still's courageous 1940 work, And They Lynched Him on a Tree , Black lives, and the continued need for equal justice. Part of Coro Allegro's Amplifying Black Voices series. Learn more.
Sponsored by David and Shiela Hodgkins and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Boston Mayor's Office for Arts and Culture
Watch the Premiere of the Amplifying Black Voices Series:
Composer Fred Onovwerosuoke hosts
America, We Need to Talk
"We breathe the same air, want the same things, we need to talk."
Join us for conversation, music, and poetry as we shine light on classcal music, race relations in America, and the movement for Black Lives through the prism of Onovwerosuoke's kaleidoscopic work A Triptych of American Voices: A Cantata of the People, commissioned for Coro Allegro in 2019. With guests: Adelia Parker-Castro, artist, Tai Oney, countertenor, Jonas Budris, tenor, Christopher Wilkins, Music Director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and Willis Emmons and Zach Durant-Emmons, commissioners. Learn more.
DONATE TO SUPPORT THE SERIES
Sponsored in part by Willis Emmons & Zach Durant-Emmons and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
THANK YOU!
We are so grateful to all who donated and helped us reach both of our Season of Giving Matching Challenges! With the support of our Coro Family, Boston's LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus is pulling together to make it through. We invite you to join us as we raise our voices in new ways that fulfill our mission of building bridges between disparate communities through artistic excellence.
Join us for our 2020-2021 Virtual Season
Inspiration • Innovation • Collaboration
"I'm thinking of when we will meet again."
Our season opened with Coro Allegro performing in the Terezín Music Foundation's concert film with pianist Garrick Ohlsson, other celebrated artists from around the world, and speakers and honorees Madeleine Albright, Holocaust survivor Anna Ornstein, and Khizr Khan. Virtual choirs from Coro Allegro performed “Eliahu HaNavi" by Terezín composer Viktor Ullmann, and "I'll Be Seeing You" arranged by Peter Eldridge, and collaborated on Brother Dennis Slaughter's arrangement of "We Shall Overcome" with his Boston Community Gospel Choir and the Brookline High School Camerata, led by Coro alumnus Michael Driscoll.
• • • • • • • •
Amplifying Black Voices
A retrospective series amplifying the voices of Black artists, advocates, composers, and conductors with whom we have been proud to collaborate. Join us as we look back at works we have performed together in the context of the current Black Lives Matter movement.
Featuring Fred Onovwerosuoke • Phil Lima • Reginald Mobley • Jonathan Q. Barryman and others.
WATCH THE PREMIERE WITH FRED ONOVWEROSUOKE
Launched this October, the Coro Academy offers music training courses for singers to help us emerge from the pandemic, stronger than ever!. Offerings include music theory/harmony and solfege, in collaboration with the Kodály Music Institute of Boston, plus vocal training masterclasses with beloved Coro Allegro Guest Artists,
Dear Friends,
in March 2019, long before the pandemic silenced our concert halls and our communities poured into the streets to cry out for justice following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, Coro Allegro and the Heritage Chorale of New Haven joined forces for a concert called America/We Need to Talk . . .
. . . Coro Allegro stands with the Black community in turn. To our Black singers and audience members, and all the Black artists with whom we have the honor to make music, please know that we support you. Even if we can't sing together right now, we will still raise our voices with you to call for justice, to hold you safe, and to affirm that Black lives matter.
Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson lays out with clarity why America needs to talk about race and its role in our history:
"We have been practicing silence about our history for a very long time. In this country, we don’t talk about slavery, we don’t talk about lynching, we don’t talk about segregation, we have a hard time talking about race . . .We react to the effort of trying to talk about it as if that’s the threat. Not our continued silence."
Fred Onovwerosuoke closed his Cantata of the People with these words by his friend, the late Poet Laureate of St. Louis, Michael Castro: "We breathe the same air, [we] want the same things, we need to talk."
For the full statement, links to support our partners, and an extraordinary video by the Intercultural Music Initiative, visit the Coro Allegro blog.
Look for Coro's upcoming album
In the spring of 2018, Coro Allegro and Artistic Director David Hodgkins were proud to record We Are Here at Futura Productions. The album features Kareem Roustom's Rage Against the tyrant(s) and Eric Banks' Aluta continua: The passion of David Kato Kisule, two works by American composers bearing witness to international human rights. Keep an eye out for the full album in 2021!
Join us!
Coro Allegro is Boston's LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus. Under the baton of Artistic Director David Hodgkins, Coro Allegro is known for award-winning programming, powerful commissions, and critically acclaimed performances and recordings of works by diverse classical and contemporary composers. We are proud to offer a welcoming, affirming and supportive environment for performers and audiences alike.
Experience that pride and community for yourself. Join the Coro Family of friends, allies, and members of the LGBTQ+ community as a singer, supporter, or volunteer.
Auditions
Coro Allegro is seeking new singers for its 2020-2021 season. Auditions will be held by appointment for all voice parts! Learn more about the process and schedule an audition today!
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