Our 2022 Solo(s) Together project concludes with a concert featuring a Boston ensemble that's making news nationally and a widely-acclaimed composer and musician with local ties. A quartet from Boston's Castle of our Skins artist collective -- a group of artists of all kinds dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music -- performs contemporary works to include Music for Black People, No. 1 “Relentless” for four instrumentalists by Daniel Bernard Roumain, with short solos for each performers and a conclusion that brings all the performers together.
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), DBR has worked with artists from Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones to Lady Gaga; appeared on NPR, American Idol, and ESPN; and has collaborated with the Sydney Opera House and the City of Burlington, Vermont. Acclaimed as a violinist and activist, DBR’s career spans more than two decades, earning commissions by venerable artists and institutions worldwide. He recently composed the music for Jamila Wignot's feature documentary Ailey, and his music can be experienced this season in The Just and the Blind, his collaborative multimedia exploration of Black fatherhood and Black boyhood in an age of mass incarceration with spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph.
PROGRAM
Tania León Oh Yemanja
Andre Myers Falling Skyward
Zenobia Powell Perry The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson “Calvary Ostinato” from Black Folksongs and Lamentations
Daniel Bernard Roumain Music for Black People, No. 1 “Relentless”
(world premiere; Solo(s) Together)
Undine Smith Moore Afro-American Suite
Composer note:
Music for Black People, No. 1 – Relentless is just that: music for people who are Black. If you’re not Black, you can, of course, still listen to this music but you might not hear it. If that offends you, you might ask yourself why. Power and peace to Black people!