Margaret Bonds News

Despite the current hiatus in live performance, tenor Nicholas Phan is keeping his momentum going with online performances and educational events throughout the fall, as well as with his continuing work as Artistic Director of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC).

Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago celebrates its tenth anniversary season with fall offerings that include the annual Collaborative Works Festival, two recitals as part of the Lieder Lounge series, and the first installment of a Polish song workshop.

Sarah Cahill presents The Future is Female: In Conversation and Performance hosted by Boulanger Initiative, a nonprofit organization working for greater inclusivity in music.

In honor of Juneteenth, WQXR is devoting the entire day to spotlighting the work of Black composers and performers from around the globe with an all-day tribute a?oeMusic for Juneteenth: A Celebration of Black Classical Artistry.a??

This week, Los Angeles Opera's website features a wonderful recital by the renowned bass who has portrayed so many great characters in that house, Morris Robinson.

Organizers today announced the second phase of the Harlem Renaissance 100, a multi-year celebration originally kicked off in February of this year to commemorate the milestone 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance and the artistic brilliance born from that movement.

New Music USA has announced six composers who have been co-commissioned to write new orchestral works through its Amplifying Voices Program, supported by the Sphinx Venture Fund.

On Friday, June 5, 2020 at 8pm, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, will perform The Future is Female as a livestream performance presented by Old First Concerts.

During its unplanned hiatus from public performances, LA Opera has created an extensive array of online programming under the banner LAO at Home. Here's what's on tap for next week.

The revolutionary Sunday morning concert series GatherNYC celebrates its 50th concert in a span of just two years with an appearance by pianist and innovator Lara Downes on Sunday, March 15, and continues the following week with Ulysses Quartet on March 22.

The revolutionary Sunday morning concert series GatherNYC celebrates its 50th concert in a span of just two years with an appearance by pianist and innovator Lara Downes on Sunday, March 15. GatherNYC's ambitious programming features world-class performers, community building and spiritual nourishment. This concert also marks the kickoff of its spring season, to continue weekly on Sunday mornings through May 31.

At the University of Arizona's Centennial Hall. on January 28, 2020, the Tucson Desert Song Festival presented Thomas Hampson, baritone, with Lara Downes, piano, and the Beyond Liberty Players: Stephen Buck, synthesizer; Judy Kang, violin; Jesus Morales, cello; and Alex Laing, clarinet; The show libretto was based on an original work by Royce Vavrek which first appeared in a Francesca Zambello production at the 2018 Glimmerglass Festival in upstate New York

Long Beach Opera continues its popular new series of fundraisers called a?oeUnGalasa?? on February 15th with Dream Variation at the California African American Museum in L.A. The celebration features performances of works by composers of African descent throughout history, performed by some of opera's most exciting Black artists of today, followed by pairings of upscale comfort foods and fine wines.

AURAL COMPASS PROJECTS - On Friday, February 7th, 2020 at 7:30pm, Aural Compass Projects presents Lift Every Voice, a celebration of African-American composers of the last century. Featured cycles on the program are John Carter's Cantata, a five-part work of sophisticated arrangements of spirituals; Jacqueline Hairston's On Consciousness Streams, a song cycle with text by Ms. Hairston, a translation of text by Ludwig van Beethoven, and an excerpt from Dr. Howard Thurman's Meditations of the Heart; Margaret Bonds' Three Dream Portraits, which uses poems by Langston Hughes; and H. Leslie Adams' Nightsongs, using the words of five African-American poets. Soprano Meroë Khalia Adeeb, mezzo-soprano Tesia Kwarteng, and tenor Elliott Paige all make their ACP debuts, joined by Artistic Director and pianist Michael Lewis.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's performance series, MetLiveArts, Announces the 2020 Winter/Spring Season.

The 50-member Dessoff Choirs continues its 95th season with a program dedicated to two of choral music's most influential composers, Britain's John Rutter and American Gregg Smith. Accompanied by pianist Steven Ryan, Dessoff performs two unforgettable choral gems: Rutter's The Sprig of Thyme, a collection of charming British folk songs for chorus, and Smith's The Continental Harmonist along with spirituals by Florence Price and Margaret Bonds sung by Dessoff's maestro, Malcolm J. Merriweather.

Hailed as a?oeone of the great amateur choruses of our timea?? (New York Today) for its a?oefull-bodied sound and supplenessa?? (The New York Times), the 50-member Dessoff Choirs begins its 2019-20 season highlighting choral works by esteemed composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Featuring full orchestra, and soloists Laquita Mitchell (soprano) and Donovan Singletary (baritone), the program is centered around the original 1893 version of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, the composer's masterpiece. Complementing the Requiem is Ich lasse dich nicht, a motet attributed to J.S. Bach, William Schuman's evocative Prelude for Voices, and the a?oeKyriea?? from Louis Vierne's Messe solennelle.

Opera on Tap in partnership with The Old Stone House, The Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID, and Anti-Social Music and in association with Sing For Hope and with support from the Park Slope Civic Council, will stage an interactive musical walk through America's volatile political history the weekends of July 5th and July 12th entitled This Is The Ground. With curatorial support from famed song historian Paul Sperry, music will include a diverse array of songs spanning popular and classical styles ranging from the 1790s to now. Billed as a site-specific, interactive musical journey mapping an American refusal to surrender, the experience has been developed and directed by renowned theatre-makers, Latrelle Bright and Jerre Dye.

Pianist/Composer Dr. Nnenna Ogwo returns to Joe's Pub for her annual Juneteenth Celebration, an event which takes its name from the announcement of the emancipation of slaves on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas. Known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, Nnenna marks the occasion by reveling in the music of those that took their freedom and made art.

Hailed as "one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its "full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times)," The Dessoff Choirs today announced its 2019-20 season. The Dessoff Choirs celebrates its 95th season with performances of choral masterworks by both 20th century luminaries and today's most innovative composers. In addition to Dessoff's popular holiday concerts, the season features the New York premiere of Craig Hella Johnson's Considering Matthew Shepard, a reprise performance and CD release of Margaret Bond's The Ballad of the Brown King, and the Faure Requiem in the original 1893 version. (The complete season schedule is below.)