Before everyone dressed all in black, second half, everybody has a splash of color. John: Well, Jon Batiste had a little church meeting going when he was reading his poem before the premiere of "I can.". Bless the Michael Morgan. Before I'd conceived this piece, I had this poem, and it just kept resurfacing in my subconscious. Yes. What does it mean to have you and your colleagues in this place at this time? Search University of South Carolina University of South Carolina Navigation. is a work for piano and orchestra called I Can. The Orchestra made its stunning Carnegie Hall debut on April 24, 2022 as the first all-Black orchestra to be presented by the famed venue. It's a big event for the members of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra coming down to Carnegie Hall from their home in Rochester, in upstate New York. What else is Gateways beyond this? There's a great degree to which American orchestras and American so-called classic music generally has really kept its most powerful legacy at arm's length, which is the music of Black people and Black Americans. The Gateways Music Festival Orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut on Sunday afternoon, April 24, with conductor Anthony Parnther (far right) and Grammy Award-winning pianist Jon Batiste (in gold). In Wynton Marsalis's re-imagining, A Fiddler's Tale, he takes Stravinsky's early jazz ingredients even further, melding jazz and classical idioms together with an updated narrative. It's wonderful to have you here. 3 in C Minor and Sinfonia No. Enjoy the show. If you're a fan of Barber's Adagio for strings, I urge you to check out George Walker's Lyric for strings. Lauren Purcell Joiner, Christine Herskovits, Eileen Delahunty, and Max Fine. "Oh, well this is classical music. It can also serve as a beard or it can veil other, I think, less inclusive narratives. The 120-member Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, whose distinguished players hail from the nations foremost orchestras and conservatory faculties, is renowned for its bold sound, exciting interpretations and uncompromising pursuit of artistic excellence. Gateways Music Festival in association with Eastman School of Music announced on Dec 7th that Anthony Parnther will lead the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra at its eagerly anticipated performances at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre (April 20) and the Orchestra's Carnegie Hall debut (April 24).Known for his "charismatic, captivating conducting" (Los Angeles Times), Parnther takes the . The Festival was initially scheduled for this November, with a Rochester kick-off, but was rescheduled to next Spring due to the coronavirus pandemic. As you know, you're moving an orchestra or a music festival across a giant state like this is a big effort. Free, but tickets are required.. Alcohol served. That's available to everyone. The performance was the first by an all-Black classical symphony orchestra in Carnegie Hall's history. We purposely did not do it in Rochester because we wanted this to be the world premiere. Of course, that's not true. All Gateways Music Festival performances are free and open to the public. He has premiered and recorded works by Anthony Davis, George Walker, Errollyn Wallen, John Wineglass, Gary Powell Nash, Marian Harrison, Renee Baker, James Wilson, Phillip Herbert, Daniel Kidane, Chanda Dancy, and James Newton. Anthony Parnther | Photo by Konstantin Golovchinsky. A great big deep bow and a warm welcome to this Carnegie Hall audience. George Walker composed it in 2003. Anthony: There's a significant difference between conducting full-time orchestras and in this orchestra of special musicians from all over the country who do not play together regularly, once every year, once every couple of years. Conductor Anthony Parnther is also out on the stage now with the rest of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra. I would love to see this orchestra record especially literature that has been under-recorded or not recorded at all by underrepresented composers. We should mention too that I Can, this new work also is credit offered in the program to orchestrator Matt Wong. Alex: Well, I think that's another thing we're saying about what do we think can and should happen in a concert that would be called classical and where is this music coming from and who are our composers. Jeff: That's more than 20 years now. This artist has also appeared with: This artist not appeared with any other performers that we know of. They're leaving the stage for a few minutes, but we have managed to grab one of them by the coattail as he walks by. You can hear that the audience, again, willing to go there and applaud each of the musicians as they stand. Female Speaker 2: Your tickets, please. Over the course of each six-day festival, the musicians give a full orchestral . That type of dance and the music that accompanied it was so important that Florence Price actually gave that name, Juba, to the third movement of all of her symphonies. To come to a place where there are folks who've had a shared life experience, it's extraordinary for them. That's available to everyone. A drum kit as well will be called for in this next piece by Jon Batiste, who is a Perspectives artist here at Carnegie Hall, which means he gets to oversee a whole series of events during this 2021-22 season. Anthony: I just feel that as musicians, our first responsibility is to come together and create beauty. The concert featured conductor Anthony Parnther of the San Bernadino Symphony Orchestra and Southeast Symphony & Chorus in Los Angeles; and Grammy Awardwinning pianist and composer Jon Batiste, who performed the world premiere of a commission for the orchestra. SAHAM. I asked him what was it like to be at Carnegie Hall. Not since the start, but since 2001. At least that's the case with her first, third, and fourth symphony. Also particularly looking at it from the context of American orchestras. World premiere, so a song and a kind of sweet for piano into orchestra all in one extraordinarily well-received performance here on the main stage at Carnegie Hall. This place for musicians is key and essential and critical to the mission because most of our players work in environments where there are very, very, very few people, if any, who look like them. We'll hear the third of her symphonies this afternoon, which was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Music Project. They're equally important to us. It is his voice. What's making the occasion even bigger is that they will be presenting a world premiere, a piece so new, the ink has barely dried on it. 3 of Florence Price, performed by the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra conducted by Anthony Parnther in the orchestra's Carnegie Hall debut and he first time that work has ever been performed at Carnegie Hall, written in the 1930s with help from the federal government, the WPA program at that time, Florence Price created this Symphony No. The orchestra comes together and you just dig into the music. The African cloth comes out and no two people look exactly the same. That's a narrative that can be true, but it doesn't just happen. It's a world premiere. Anthony Parnther, conductorAntoine T. Clark, assistant conductor, VIOLIN I Kelly Hall-Tompkins, concertmaster Cleveland A. Chandler Daniel Constant Caitlin Edwards Mellasenah Edwards Brendon Elliott Alex Gonzalez Mariana Green-Hill Marianne Henry Ashley Horne Amyr Joyner Kyle Lombard Jessica R. McJunkins Chelsea Sharpe Lionel Thomas Anyango Yarbo-Davenport, VIOLIN II Derek Reeves, principal Lucinda Ali-Landing Charlene Bishop Jeffrey Boga Dale Breidenthal David Burnett Nicole Cherry Frdrique Gnaman Bennie Harris Joshua Henderson Sarah E. Martin Phillip Payton Meredith Riley Booker Rowe, VIOLAJennifer Arnold, principalLeslie DeShazorAndrew FrancoisAshleigh GordonLinda GreenChristopher JenkinsCaroline JonesJaven LaraDeidra LawrenceAundrey MitchellYvonne SmithGeorge Taylor, CELLO Troy Stuart, principal Ifetayo Ali-Landing Cremaine Booker Eric Cooper Gordon Grubbs Joseph Hbert Timothy Holley Thapelo Masita Prudence McDaniel Derek Menchan James Ryan Murphy Wayne Smith, DOUBLE BASS Rick Robinson, principal William Johnson Kevin Mauldin Anthony Morris Jacqueline Pickett Patricia Silva Weitzel, FLUTE Judith Dines, principal Dennis Carter Jacqueline Cordova-Arrington Patricia Reeves, OBOE Titus Underwood, principal Hassan Anderson Sarrah Bushara Geoffrey Johnson, CLARINET Alexander Laing, principal Pamela Coats Robert Davis LeTriel White, BASSOONJoshua Elmore, principalAlexander DavisKai RockeMaya Stone, FRENCH HORN Larry Williams, principal David Dickerson Adedeji Ogunfolu Priscilla Rheinhart Jeffrey Scott, TRUMPET Herbert Smith, principal Javian Brabham Leonard Foy Courtney Jones, TROMBONE Burt Mason, principal Isrea Butler Timothy Robinson Martin McCain (Bass), PERCUSSION Ralph Barrett, principal Jauvon Gilliam Cleo Goldberg Don Johns Terry McKinney. I wrote this poem in the summer of 2020. John: As Jon Batiste's piece just showed. Aug 3 2019. That was my first Gateways. Jeff: Congratulations to you, Anthony Parnther, and to the Gateways Music Festival at an amazing week in New York in an amazing combination of this concert. I think also really significant for us is this is the first time that the orchestra or the festival has toured, has branched out of being in one place. Well, Jon Batiste had a little church meeting going when he was reading his poem before the premiere of ". Armenta Hummings Dumisani, I think the term force of nature was created for her. She's never taken medication. That is as Lee Koonce told us again and again, that's one of the most important things that's happening here this afternoon. Founded in 1993, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra celebrates the contributions of classical musicians of African descent, bringing together professionals from leading orchestras across the country to perform and inspire communities through the power of music. Orchestra Hall When I got the call to be part of this momentous occasion tonight and the request was to write a piece that was inspired by a written word, this felt very apt. I should have asked you that before this began, but I'll lay it on you anyway. There is an improvisatory element to it. In fact, the third movement is called Juba, which is a type of body percussion and dance that was widely found in musical traditions of enslaved Afro-Caribbean people. Press Room. It seems like there was a real intention behind the planning of this program today. It was a historic concert when the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra performed in Carnegie Hall.It's an ensemble made up entirely of classical musicians of African descent, from orchestras around the country. The most recent Gateways Music Festival took place in April 2022 in both Rochester and New York City and featured seven days of performances, panel discussions, lectures, film showings and more before a live audience of nearly 7,000 and a live radio audience of more than 100,000. The Sphinx Organization, based in Detroit, supports young Black and Latinx musicians, the Gateways Music Festival in Rochester features musicians of color from around the country, and the . Conceived this piece, I think, less inclusive narratives Eileen Delahunty, and it just resurfacing... With any other performers that we know of all by underrepresented composers musicians, our first is... 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