Posts in new release
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.

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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.

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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.

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NEW RELEASE: James Sanders & Conjunto "Evidencia"

James Sanders and his Latin jazz ensemble Conjunto, will celebrate the release of their new album, Evidencia on Friday at 8:30 p.m. with a performance at Constellation in Chicago.

Sanders is a violinist with the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra, where he’s been a member since 1993. Though he didn’t study jazz during his college career or prior (he is a graduate of Yale), his dual musical citizenship, was mirrored in his bilingual upbringing.

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NEW RELEASE: Catalyst Quartet ft. Michelle Cann "UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price"

Catalyst Quartet today releases UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The 2-CD length digital album is the second in a series of a multi-volume anthology highlighting the GRAMMY award-winning string quartet’s works by important Black composers.

Volume 2 is entirely devoted to the six known string quartet and piano quintet works of composer Florence B. Price – including four world premiere recordings – performed with pianist Michelle Cann, recipient of the 2021 Price Award.

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“Cool Story”: Jonathan Bingham's Plan to Record and Publish Unheard Howard Composers

As a student at Howard University in 2010, composer Jonathan Bingham attended a small chamber music concert by “The President’s Own” United States Marine String Quartet with about 40 other audience members. On the program was the 1st movement of a string quartet by the late composer Mark Fax (1911-1974). A private recording of the concert was made by Howard and shared with Bingham and other composition students and faculty.

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UrbanArias Commissions Song Cycle for Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 100th Anniversary

“UNKNOWN”, a song cycle honoring the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on the centennial of its founding will have its world premiere performance Tuesday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA.

Featured performers for the performance are baritones Michael Mayes and Schyler Vargas, and mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, accompanied by members of the Inscape Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Robert Wood, the Founder and Artistic Director of UrbanArias.

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NEW RELEASE: Jennifer Koh "Alone Together"

Violinist Jennifer Koh’s new album, “Alone Together”, to be released digitally by Cedille Records on August 27, is based on her online performance series of the same name, originally broadcasted live on Instagram from her home.

The series was created in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the financial hardship it placed on musicians in the arts community.

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NEW RELEASE: Tyshawn Sorey ft. Alarm Will Sound-“For George Lewis”

Composer Tyshawn Sorey’s double-album, featuring the chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, releases on Cantaloupe Music on August 27.

Recently profiled in the New York Times Magazine, Sorey has been called a denizen of the “in-between zone” by the New Yorker. The two works on the album, commissioned by Alarm Will Sound, tap into a central theme that Sorey calls “the decorating of time.”

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NEW RELEASE: Apollo Chamber Players "With Malice Toward None"

Apollo Chamber Players releases their fifth studio albumWith Malice Toward None, August 20 on Azica Records.

The album is “a collection of globally-inspired compositions and collaborations, with each composer sharing their own personal interpretations of folk music.”

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Afro-Diasporic Opera Forum Studies Impact of Black Composer Contributions on the Genre

The International Contemporary Ensemble, in partnership with Opera Omaha and FringeArts, presents the Afro-Diasporic Opera Forum online from May 26-28.

The Forum is a free, three-day series of online events produced by colleagues and collaborators of the International Contemporary Ensemble to celebrate, share, and reflect on four operas that have made a major impact on the organization and its collaborators.

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Composition for Abolition: How Sound Off is Changing the Nation One Note at a Time

Saturday, February 27 at 7 p.m. EST, Sound Off: Music for Bail will present a live-streamed concert featuring string quartets by Florence Price, Yaz Lancaster, and George Walker with the support of the Groupmuse Foundation’s Planetary Music Movement (PMM).

The abolitionist musical collective Sound Off: Music for Bail celebrates Black composers and raises money for national bail funds in a live-streamed concert on Groupmuse, an online concert platform.

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Baruch College and Opera Omaha to Premiere "dwb" (Driving While Black)

Baruch College Performing Arts Center and Opera Omaha will stream the virtual premiere of “dwb” (Driving While Black) from October 23 to October 29.

Composed by Susan Kander, sung by soprano and librettist, Roberta Gumbel, and performed on cello and percussion by New Morse Code (Hannah Collins, cello, and Michael Compitello, percussion).

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