Coro Allegro joins Landmarks Orchestra for "Deep River" on the Esplanade

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RAIN DATE: 
Due to thunderstorms Wednesday, the concert will now be held on Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 7pm.

Join us on the Esplanade! Coro Allegro is thrilled to be invited to perform with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Christopher Wilkins, Music Director, and other guest artists for Deep River,  at the DCR Hatch Memorial Shell on the Charles River Esplanade, in Boston, Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 7pm.

This free concert featuries African American spirituals, a concert suite of Jerome Kern's musical Show Boat. and a reprise of "We Need to Talk" from A Triptych of the American Voices: A Cantata of the People"  by Fred Onovwerosuoke, featuring countertenor Tai Oney and tenor Jonas Budris, first premiered by Coro Allegro at our March concert America/We Need to Talk.

Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Coro Allegro | David Hodgkins, Artistic Director
One City Choir | David F. Coleman, choirmaster
Members of New England Spiritual Ensemble
Boston String Academy
Jonas Budris, tenor
Matthew DiBattista, tenor
Sirgourney Cook, soprano
Jennifer Ellis, soprano
Davron S. Monroe, tenor
Tai Oney, countertenor
Alvy Powell, bass-baritone

William Grant Still Festive Overture 
Morton Gould Sprituals for Strings (excerpts)
Traditional, arr. Bonds Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
Traditional, arr. Bonds He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand
Fred Onovwerosuoke "We Need to Talk" from
A Triptych of American Voices: A Cantata of the People
Jerome Kern Show Boat in Concert

More on the program from the Boston Landmarks Orchestra:   
African American spirituals—revered today as essential anthems of the American experience—sing of oppression while glorifying freedom. Boston Landmarks Orchestra performs a selection of songs and spirituals by African American composers. "We Need to Talk"  by Fred Onovwerosuoke shines light on race relations through the prism of music and poetry. The songs will be followed by a concert suite of excerpts and narration from Jerome Kern’s 1927 musical Show Boat. The musical introduced racial themes in forward-looking ways on the Broadway stage. Today it remains a beloved classic of American musical theater, while provoking both admiration and controversy.

The program features the One City Choir, David F. Coleman, choirmaster, a large symphonic choir comprising committed and passionate singers from all of Boston’s 23 neighborhoods and surrounding communities. The choir takes its name from the words of Boston civic leader Hubie Jones, who has advocated that “Boston can be one city through arts and culture.”

The concert is the culmination of a series of discussions and outreach events focusing on the history of race relations on the Broadway stage, and the role that African American music has played in shaping American culture.

sign_language-1.jpg  American Sign Language (ASL) Team

Sponsored by:
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Rain Date: Thursday, August 1, 2019. If it rains on August 1 as well, the concert will be held at First Church in Cambridge 11 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Bonus Pre-concert Panel discussion:  
Portraying Race Through Musical Theatre And The Concert Stage in 2019,
Tuesday July 23, at 6pm, at WBUR's CitySpace, at the Levine Broadcast Center

Panelists:
Emmett G. Price III, Dean and Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary
Todd Decker, Chair of Music and Professor of Musicology and American Culture Studies, Washington University in St. Louis; author of "Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical" and "Who Should Sing “Ol’ Man River”?: The Lives of an American Song"
David F. Coleman, Director of Choral Music, Dana Hall School; Director, Tufts University Third Day Gospel Choir.
Alvy Powell, American bass-baritone opera singer and a former member of the U.S. Army Chorus. Known for his performances at presidential events and for the role of Porgy in the George Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess." Performed as Joe in "Show Boat" at Carnegie Hall in 2008.
Ashleigh Gordon, Violist; Artistic and Executive Director, Castle of Our Skins
Christopher Wilkins, Music Director, Boston Landmarks Orchestra
David Hodgkins, Artistic Director, Coro Allegro

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