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.

Groupmuse's Beyond Borders Offers a Multifaceted Virtuosic Evening in NYC

On September 15, violinist Vijay Gupta, cellist Joel Noyes, and Kuchipudi dancer Yamini Kalluri had intended to present “Beyond Borders”, a multidisciplinary Groupmuse event combining poetry, classical music, and dance. The lingering existence of COVID-19 unfortunately necessitated a change in the programming. With Kalluri having tested positive the morning of, the remaining performers regrouped on this evening in Brooklyn, NY at Christ Church Cobble Hill that celebrated the eclectic and the intentional.

artist feature, chamber music, classical music, composers, concerts, dance, global, international, music, poetry, reviews, solo performances, strings, UncategorizedSeptember 28, 2023

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.

Chineke! Orchestra To Make Highly Anticipated Inaugural Tour to North Americ

Chineke!, Europe’s first majority-Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, led by conductor Andrew Grams, will make its inaugural North American tour this month performing in six cities across Canada and the U.S.

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.

Sound Off, Planetary Music Project, PROTESTRA & VOCAL-NY Collab For Concert of Chamber and Orchestral Works at Robert Moss Theater

In collaboration with Groupmuse’s Planetary Music Movement and PROTESTRA, Sound Off: Music for Bail presents a hybrid program of chamber and orchestral music by leading contemporary and historical Black American composers alongside "Yet Unheard" a cantata dedicated to the life and memory of Sandra Bland by Rome Prize-winning composer Dr. Courtney Bryan at Playwrights Horizons Downtown.

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.

2023 Grammy Nominations Announced

This year BIPOC classical composers' works have been Grammy nominated in several award categories and BIPOC classical musicians perform on a number of Grammy nominated recordings in the Classical Music category, as well as the Americana category.

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.

This Juneteenth, Consider The Evolution and Future of Liberated Black Culture

With the ever-growing awareness and celebration of Juneteenth, let it shine as an example of what’s possible through our collective diversity. Let Juneteenth, and the evolutions of music and culture that it has inspired, be something we all celebrate.

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

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.

Black Orchestral Network Calls On American Orchestras to Enact Systems Level Change

Founded by Jennifer Arnold, Alexander Laing, David A. Norville, Joy Payton-Stevens, Shea Scruggs, Weston Sprott, and Titus Underwood, the Black Orchestral Network describes itself as “a community of Black orchestral artists” who “love and care about the American orchestral community.” However, with that love comes concern. BON sees the relative lack of Black talent in professional orchestras as a huge problem and has entered the arts activism field with not only a mission, but with a call to action.

In BON’s formal call to action, the organization offers some of the context that inspired their very direct approach, namely, a 2014 statistic that highlights the fact that less than 2% of American orchestral musicians are Black.

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.

Eastman School of Music Dedicates New George Walker Center for Equity and Inclusion in Music

The George Walker Center for Equity and Inclusion in Music opened April 16 at the Eastman School campus at the University of Rochester campus.

The dedication included remarks by University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf; Jamal J. Rossi, Joan and Martin Messinger Dean at Eastman; Ian and Gregory Walker, sons of George Walker, and others, as well as performances of Walker’s chamber music works.

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.