Amplifying Black Voices Series
Coro Allegro, Boston's LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus, and Artistic Director David Hodgkins, present a new online series led by Black artists, advocates, composers, and conductors with whom we have been proud to collaborate, in the context of the movement for Black lives.
Hosts: Composer Fred Onovwerosuoke • Baritone Phillip Lima • Conductor Jonathan Q. Berryman of the Heritage Chorale of New Haven • Countertenor Reginald L. Mobley
This series is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Mayor's Office for Arts and Culture, and an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England and has been awarded the first Choral Arts New England Board grant, "exemplifying advancement of the Board's priorities in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion."
This series is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Mayor's Office for Arts and Culture, and an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England and has been awarded the first Choral Arts New England Board grant, "exemplifying advancement of the Board's priorities in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion."
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Watch A Conversation Still Needed:
with Jonathan Q. Berryman
Director, The Heritage Chorale of New Haven
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 back at our historic collaboration on William Grant Still's courageous 1940 work, And They Lynched Him on a Tree, and the continued need to advocate for Black lives and equal justice.
In addition to excerpts of William Grant Still 's double-chorus drama, the program features his Summerland performed by Pinkham Award winner and former Coro Allegro accompanist Darryl Hollister, plus two new virtual chorus collaborations of William Grant Still’s The Blind Man and M. Roger Holland’s Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace.
Guests include:
Judith Anne Still, archivist and advocate for her father's music,
Ron Williams, baritone and narrator of the 2019 performance,
Singers from both choruses.
Moderated by
Coro Allegro Artistic Director David Hodgkins
Executive Director Yoshi Campbell
Sponsored in part by
David & Shiela Hodgkins
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Watch the Series Premiere America, We Need to Talk
featuring Composer Fred Onovwerosuoke
"We breathe the same air, want the same things, we need to talk."
– Michael Castro, Poet Laureate of St. Louis
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:
Artist Adelia Parker-Castro
Tai Oney, countertenor, Jonas Budris, tenor,
Christopher Wilkins, Music Director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra,
Willis Emmons and Zach Durant-Emmons, commissioners
Moderators:
Coro Allegro Artistic Director David Hodgkins
Executive Director Yoshi Campbell
Sponsored in part by Willis Emmons & Zach Durant-Emmons