{"id":53985,"date":"2019-06-26T16:45:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T14:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/?p=53985\/"},"modified":"2019-07-02T19:19:52","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T17:19:52","slug":"a-concert-for-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/blog\/2019\/06\/26\/a-concert-for-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs of Freedom: African American Spirituals and Songs from the New World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Schiller Boston Community Chorus, based in Quincy, MA, joined by guests from New York, Detroit, and San Francisco, just completed a weekend of performances in concerts in Providence, RI and Quincy, MA featuring songs from the New World and classical African American Spirituals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Concert For Freedom: June 14, 2019\" width=\"860\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ryXQReolTq8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Friday: Songs of Freedom<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_54488\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54488\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-54488 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frankii.jpg\" width=\"310\" height=\"407\" srcset=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frankii.jpg 310w, https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frankii-229x300.jpg 229w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-54488\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Baritone Frank Mathis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Friday, June 14, 2019, the SI Boston Community Chorus teamed up with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stagesoffreedom.org\/\">Stages of Freedom<\/a>, who hosted the event, for an evening of history through music. Stages of Freedom is an organization dedicated to providing young African-Americans access to swimming programs, cultural\u00a0programming, and to educate inner-city youth by providing access to museums and live performance.\u00a0Historians and Stages of Freedom founders, Robb Dimmick and Ray Rickman planned this concert at Manning Chapel (Brown University) specifically because of the role the Brown family played as the second largest slave-owner family in Rhode Island\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>By the time the concert began, on\u00a0Friday, June 14th\u00a0at 5:30pm,\u00a0there was a sold-out audience of over 200 people.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rickman opened the event by challenging the audience to not think of this event as \u201centertainment, but to improve your soul and spirit.\u201d This, preceded by a stirring rendition of \u201cI\u2019ve been buked\u201d by Hall Johnson, performed by the chorus <i>a capella<\/i>, set the tone for the entire event.<\/p>\n<p>The concert featured the Schiller Boston Community chorus and soloists singing Spirituals and was carefully and dramatically orchestrated to portray the horrors of the Rhode Island slave trade, through readings taken from The Notorious Triangle\u00a0by Jay Coughtry.\u00a0\u00a0The unique and necessary\u00a0participation of the chorus dramatic performances of five Spirituals and a Mozart choral piece and also of soprano, Michelle Erin performance of Hall Johnson\u2019s \u201cGive me Jesus,\u201d baritone, Frank Mathis, \u201cGoin\u2019 Home\u201d and excerpts from Roland Hayes \u201cLife of Christ,\u201d and soprano, Annicia Smith\u2019s moving rendition of \u201cDeep River&#187; was punctuated by the remarks of invited guest, Northeast coordinator of the Schiller Institute, Dennis Speed.\u00a0 All pieces were skillfully and beautifully accompanied by pianist, My-Hoa Steger.\u00a0 At the conclusion of the 90-minute concert, the chorus led the audience in singing \u201cLift every voice and sing,\u201d and led the audience outside the beautiful chapel to a receiving line.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_54449\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54449\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-54449\" src=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/full-chorus.jpg\" alt=\"Schiller Institute Boston Community Chorus and friends.\" width=\"710\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/full-chorus.jpg 710w, https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/full-chorus-300x178.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-54449\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Schiller Institute Boston Community Chorus and friends.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many in the audience had never heard Spirituals sung in such an honest and dramatic way.\u00a0 Some people were visibly shocked when Dennis Speed said in his speech, that African-American Spirituals are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Classical\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">music.\u00a0 While this event was intended to shock people and create discomfort in facing the history of slavery, the role of the uplifting and never-enraged Spirituals played the crucial role in carrying out the mission of Friedrich Schiller and the Schiller Institute; it provoked the audience to be better people and to respond in an impassioned way.\u00a0 There is tremendous potential coming out of this concert, including a professional recording which will be sent out to thousands of people and future collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Saturday: Songs from the New World<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Saturday, June 15<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Schiller Boston Chorus hosted a concert entitled \u201cSongs of a New World,\u201d to educate people on the collaboration between Czech composer,\u00a0Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k and African-American baritone and composer, Harry Burleigh. This history is necessary to understand if Americans are going to make the break from geopolitics and divisiveness of the old paradigm and move into a new paradigm of win-win cooperation between the best of all cultures.\u00a0 This concert program was well composed with many solo and choral African-American Spirituals, Lieder by Brahms, and some lesser-known but beautiful and well-received songs by,\u00a0Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u00a0including two Moravian duets, a song in Czech, and the well-loved Songs my Mother Taught Me, sung by soprano, Michelle Fuchs and accompanied by My-Hoa Steger. Also, a very special rendition of the Chinese folk song, \u201cJasmine Flower (Moli-hua)\u201d sung by Donna Liao, and accompanied by treble voices and piano, brought the beauty of Chinese culture to a largely American audience.\u00a0 At certain points in the program, quotes by\u00a0Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Burleigh, and Frederick Douglass, were read, to help the audience gain further insight into the beginnings of this American Renaissance and also why it was deliberately derailed into Jazz and the Roaring 20s culture, etc.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more on this history, see\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.schillerinstitute.com\/music\/rev_10_9_95_dhs.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The African-American Spiritual and the Resurrection of Classical Art:\u00a0 Not Force, But Beauty, Will Change America<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_54461\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54461\" style=\"width: 605px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-54461 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/annicia-1.jpg\" alt=\"annicia\" width=\"605\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/annicia-1.jpg 605w, https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/annicia-1-300x139.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-54461\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soprano Annicia Smith singing &#171;Deep River.&#187;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were a few incredible responses from the audience which characterize a more general hunger for beautiful culture that our choruses are finding around the country, particularly right now.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This audience, made up entirely of the local community, including family and friends of chorus members, local business owners, and some children, gained their concentration and settled down during the opening piece, the beautiful prayer-like \u201cLaudate Dominum\u201d from Mozart\u2019s Solemn Vespers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the conclusion of the concert, there were many responses by audience members and chorus members alike.\u00a0 Many people could not believe that we are a\u00a0community chorus and that we do not hold auditions.\u00a0\u00a0This led to many good discussions about the important role of the Verdi tuning and\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bel canto<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0vocal training to train amateur voices.\u00a0 One chorus member noticed that during one particular dramatically soft and beautiful choral phrase in a spiritual, many members of the audience simultaneously sat back in their seats and closed their eyes, as if to be relieved by the music.\u00a0Many expressed how important it is to have this beauty\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in this community and how every single arrangement was beautiful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another important note was the affect of the historical excerpts and quotes, as a few members of the audience wanted to discuss the role of slavery in the United States and more of the history of Burleigh and Dvorak.\u00a0 Following the concert, there was a wonderful food reception attended by audience and performers alike.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This full weekend of two beautiful concerts reinforced our firm commitment to bringing high-level culture to all peoples and that if we can avoid the dangers of war, the United States can be ready to join the new paradigm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2013 <em>Jen Pearl,\u00a0<\/em><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conductor, Schiller Boston Community Chorus\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SchillerInstituteBostonCommunityChorus\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follow the Boston chorus on Facebook.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Schiller Boston Community Chorus, based in Quincy, MA, joined by guests from New York, Detroit, and San Francisco, just completed a weekend of performances in concerts in Providence, RI and Quincy, MA featuring songs from the New World and classical African American Spirituals.\u00a0 Friday: Songs of Freedom On Friday, June 14, 2019, the SI 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