Sound Off: Music for Bail Opens Its 2023-2024 Season at People's Forum

The program features music by notable Black, Brown, and Asian historical and living composers performed by violinists Aurora Mendez and Celina Farmer, violist Jay Julio, and cellist Angelique Montes. Featured speaker Tatiana Hill will offer a history of her work with the NYC Office of the Community Liaison in the wake of Judge Shira Scheindlin’s 2013 ruling that “stop-and-frisk” policies are unconstitutional, and the path forward ten years later. General admission tickets are $15. Proceeds from these concerts directly support musicians and speakers. Free tickets are available at request to remove financial barriers to attendance.

Filipino American Violinist Adrian Nicholas Ong Debuts at Carnegie Hall

Ong is the first recipient of FilAm Music Foundation’s New York City Recital Debut Award. He is a member of the young artists roster of the FilAm Music Foundation. Victor Santiago Asuncion, internationally acclaimed pianist and founder and artistic director of the FilAm Music Foundation, will accompany Ong on piano.

REVIEWS: Two Shows On the Edge of Now: Palaver Strings + American Composers Orchestra

Brooklyn new music institution National Sawdust played host to Wednesday’s March 15 show titled joy. The name was apt; from the moment Palaver Strings and double bass soloist Kebra Seyoun-Charles began filing on stage in their appropriately diverse and festive attire, the packed audience received them with a roar of applause.

Interlochen, NY Phil to perform "MUKTI: A Movement of Liberation” at Lincoln Center

Featuring music by living Black composers, the concert program will be led by Interlochen Orchestra director Dr. Leslie Dunner, recipient of the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Award and the NAACP's James Weldon Johnson and Distinguished Achievement Awards.

Review: Curtis Stewart & EXO at DiMenna Center

Yet through intelligent curation and a bit of ingenious staging, a clear but multifaceted thematic line emerged: combining performances and reimagining pieces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson,Julia Perry, and Stewart himself with call-and-response, group singing, and even a mid-concert dialogue, pulling from community and scholarly knowledge offered by Stewart, Blachly, and guest lecturer Dr. Fredara Hadley, also of the Juilliard School.

NatPhil Messiah Concert to Benefit Maryland's Historic "Scotland Church"

National Philharmonic (NatPhil) will present three performances of George Frideric Handel’s "Messiah" at 8 p.m. on December 17 and 3 p.m. on December 18 at The Music Center at Strathmore, as well as at 7:30 p.m. on December 23 at Capital One Hall. Conducted by Stan Engebretson, the program will feature a cast of African American singers alongside the National Philharmonic Chorale.

Review: Sitarist Megha Rawoot at Shift

From the first enchanting scale that echoed through the space, the Wednesday audience at Williamsburg’s art-laden, intimate, behind-a-record-store venue Shiftwere in for a rare treat. Mumbai-based sitarist Megha Rawoot offered a 45-minute set of rhapsodic solo music that served as testament to the versatile capabilities of her chosen instrument and to her own world-class abilities.

artist feature, classical music, global, in person concerts, in person events, international, music, reviews, solo performancesNovember 2, 2022

FilAm Summer Music Festival Returns To Chicago

FilAm Music Foundation and Evanston Chamber Music Society will present their Summer Music Festival August 19 to 21 at the Charles Gates Dawes House in Evanston, IL to showcase classical musicians of Filipino descent.

This year's festival will consist of voice, winds, strings, and piano in chamber music performances highlighting the talents of Filipino American classical musicians from across the U.S.

India at 75: Carnegie Hall Concert Series Celebrates Indian Independence

The Indo-American Arts Council, a New York City based non-profit that promotes Indian theater, performing arts, media, fashion, and literature in the United States, will celebrate 75 years of Indian independence this month with three concerts August 13 to 15 at Carnegie Hall featuring top Indian classical and contemporary musicians.

BMOP, Odyssey Opera to Perform and Record Davis’ “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X”

The opera, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis, debuted in 1986. This new performance will be staged just a short distance from the house in the Roxbury neighborhood where Malcolm X (1925-1965), born Malcolm Little, lived during his formative adolescence.

Season 2 Episode 1 of CONVERSATIONS Out Now: Nnenna Ogwo on A Musician's Responsibility

Each episode of Represent Classical's “Conversations” series features in depth interviews with industry leaders, notable musicians, movers, shakers, and innovators.

Featured in this episode: Nnenna Ogwo – pianist and Founder and Artistic Director of JuneteenthLP

Opera Programming: When is Representation At Odds With Cultural Sensitivity?

Do you remember the first time you went to go see a live production of an opera? Maybe it was during a school field trip, or for a date that you wanted to impress. I’ve met people whose first experience in an opera house was born out of a pure curiosity that led to the purchase of a ticket.

Everyone has a different story about their introduction to this art form, but what isn’t engaged as much is the residual emotional impact of said introduction. For me, the introduction came by way of performing on the stage, but I wasn’t able to measure the emotional impact opera had on me until I engaged opera as an audience member.

Silkroad Ensemble to Tour "Phoenix Rising" with Rhiannon Giddens This Summer

A musical rebirth and celebration, Phoenix Rising takes a cross-section of Silkroad’s award-winning compositions and arrangements and re-imagines them for today. With this in mind, members of the Silkroad Ensemble and Giddens collaborated on new works that coalesce Giddens unique worldview with the Ensemble’s collective experience during the pandemic.

Phoenix Rising will unveil three new commissions by Silkroad artists Sandeep Das, Maeve Gilchrist, and Kaoru Watanabe. The program also includes new arrangements by Rhiannon Giddens, Colin Jacobsen, Edward Pérez, and Mazz Swift.

Giddens and 13 Silkroad artists will visit venues in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia.

4th Annual Women Composers Fest to Feature Grammy Winning Headliners

The Women Composers Festival will highlight performances by dozens of women composers on May 27 at The Church of the Epiphany in Washington and May 28 at AMP by Strathmore in North Bethesda, Md.

The two-day event is hosted by Boulanger Initiative, a nonprofit whose mission is to promote music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting and commissions. Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender marginalized composers.

AMVA and PAO Arts Present Concert Celebrating AAPI Composers and Performers

Asian Musical Voices of America and PAO Arts Center present “Our Objects and Possibilities”, a concert celebrating AAPI composers and performers on Friday, May 6, 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the PAO Arts Center at 99 Albany Street in Boston, MA.

Works by Ken Ueno, Iman Habibi, JungYoon Wie, and Michael Thomas Foumai will be featured.

Performers include violinists Lucia Lin, Jae Lee, and Hyeyung Sol Yoon, violist Sarah Darling, cellist Leo Eguchi, and harpist Charles Overton.

Bent Not Broken Choral Conference Showcases Black Composers

The four day “Bent Not Broken” choral conference highlighting the works of Black choral composers will take place April 27 to 30 at Grace United Methodist Church in Wilmington, DE.

Organized by The Choir School of Delaware, the event will feature the American Spiritual Ensemble, led by conductor Everett McCorvey; EXIGENCE, led by conductor Eugene Rogers; Westminster Choir College Jubilee Singers, led by conductor Vinroy J. Brown, Jr.; the St. Thomas Gospel Choir; and the Choir School of Delaware, with conductor Jason Max Ferdinand.

The event will include a variety of workshops and seminars led by distinguished guest lecturers, and an Honor Choir of choristers age 12+ from youth community choirs, conducted by Alysia Lee and Maria Ellis.

CONVERSATIONS Season 1 Now Available on Spotify

Represent Classical’s popular video series, CONVERSATIONS, is now available to listen to on Spotify.

Hosted by Christine S. Escobar, Founder and Editor of Represent Classical, each episode of “CONVERSATIONS” features in depth interviews with industry leaders, notable musicians, movers, shakers, and innovators in classical music and related genres.

Stay tuned for Season 2 beginning in late spring with more insightful and thought-provoking discussions on the change that musicians of color are creating in the music industry.

Resisting the Eurocentric Paradigm: Activist Classical Music Groups Effect Change

The Dream Unfinished is one of numerous grassroots, activist orchestras that have emerged in recent years across the country. Their existence is a form of resistance against mainstream classical institutions that have been slow to change and diversify.

The concert, organized by arts administrator and clarinetist, Eun Lee, was a direct response to the killing of Eric Garner at the hands of New York police. Held at Centennial Memorial Temple in New York, the performance featured music by activist composer Leonard Bernstein and William Grant Still, considered the “dean” of African American composers, and speeches by activists including Garner’s daughter, Erica. Proceeds from ticket sales went to the Center for Constitutional Rights, Justice League NYC, and the National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice.

The Dessoff Choirs to Perform NY Premiere of Margaret Bonds Cantatas

The Dessoff Choirs celebrates the late African American composer Margaret Bonds, at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, in New York City, on April 28 at 7:30 p.m., a pre-concert talk begins at 6:45 p.m.

Born in Chicago, Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) was a pianist, a composer, an arranger, and a music teacher. She was one of the first Black composers and performers to gain popular recognition in the U.S., being the first Black soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She was also a strong fighter for civil rights, and is remembered for her arrangements of African American spirituals.

The Dessoff Choirs concert features the New York premieres of the orchestral versions of two neglected Bonds cantatas: Credo inspired by a W.E.B. Du Bois essay, and Simon Bore the Cross (edition by Malcolm J. Merriweather), a collaboration with Langston Hughes.

All Black Gateways Orchestra To Perform To Capacity Audience at Carnegie Hall Debut

With just under one month to go until their groundbreaking Carnegie Hall season feature on Sunday April 24, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, composed entirely of Black musicians, will perform for a capacity audience as tickets for the concert are nearly sold out.

The 7 day Gateways Music Festival, which runs from April 18 to 24, consists of two full orchestra concerts, six chamber music performances, two piano recitals, two film screenings, two lectures, a panel discussion, a Young Musicians Institute, and an “after hours” jam session.