Rhiannon Giddens begins Swimming in Dark Waters: Other Voices of the American Experience tour with Leyla McCalla, Bhi Bhiman … John Adams's Scheherazade.2 is performed by St. Louis Symphony, Leila Josefowicz ... Timo Andres joins Phillip Glass to perform Glass’s piano études … David Byrne celebrates carnaval in Montreal to support Haiti … Richard Goode performs in Missouri … Kronos Quartet is in Seattle … Audra McDonald gives a TimesTalk in NYC … and more …
Rhiannon Giddens embarks on a week-long tour with cellist Leyla McCalla and singer-songwriter Bhi Bhiman titled Swimming in Dark Waters: Other Voices of the American Experience. The concerts, a celebration of Black History Month, examine the history of protest, subversion, and cultural resistance from musicians of color throughout the history of the United States, from the original inhabitants to recent immigrants, exploring the songs of resistance of the South, both old and new; the deep history of protest songs from McCalla's Haiti and Louisiana; and the modern outsider-looking-in observations of first-generation American Bhiman.
The program debuts at the Finney Chapel at Oberlin College & Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio, tomorrow night, continues at Club Café in Pittsburgh on Sunday, and runs through the east coast into next weekend, including a performance at Lincoln Center in New York on Wednesday.
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John Adams's piece Scheherazade.2 is performed by the St. Louis Symphony, led by David Robertson, and violinist Leila Josefowicz at Powell Hall in St. Louis this morning and Saturday night. Adams wrote the piece for Josefowicz, who gave it its world premiere with the New York Philharmonic in 2014. This "dramatic symphony" reflects on the hardship and unfair treatment of women throughout history, with the violinist representing the legendary Scheherazade. Also on this weekend's program are works by Berlioz and Sibelius.
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Timo Andres joins composer Phillip Glass and fellow pianists Aaron Diehl, Lisa Kaplan, and Maki Namekawa, in performing Glass’s complete piano études at Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago tonight and the Loeb Playhouse at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, tomorrow night.
The Telegraph, in its four-star review of a performance of the études by Andres, Glass, and others at the Barbican in London last April, says: “Timo Andres brought out the dry wit of No 9” and that “one felt a great surge of affection in the mostly young audience, tinged with a salute to Glass’s everlasting ‘coolness’ and even a touch of reverence.”
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David Byrne is the guest of honor at the fourth-annual Kanavale Kanpe event in Montreal, joining members of Arcade Fire and Preservation Hall Jazz Band in a celebration of Haitian culture, at Espace SAT tonight. Proceeds from the sold-out event go to KANPE, a foundation designed to provide tools, training and support for Haiti’s most vulnerable families to achieve financial autonomy.
Byrne recently spoke to the Montreal Gazette about the upcoming event. “The Kanpe organization seems relatively modest compared to other rock-star things I’ve done,” Byrne told the Gazette. “I like that. It’s a personal thing, on a manageable scale. It’s not a big show of money spent; it’s about actual results. As Régine [Chassange of Arcade Fire] told me, ‘It’s small, but it functions as a model. If the model works, other people can do it in other places.’ ”
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Richard Goode gives a solo piano recital at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, tonight.
"Richard Goode is responsible for one of the most acclaimed musical events to transpire in Kansas City during the 1980s," exclaims the Kansas City Star in a preview of tonight's concert. "His performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas at the Folly Theater captured the imagination of classical music aficionados and music journalists around the world." Elsewhere in the Star, the paper calls him a "great master of the keyboard" and says he " will play what he plays so well, the music of Beethoven."
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Kronos Quartet is at the Moore Theatre in Seattle on Saturday performing Beyond Zero: 1914–1918, a work commemorating the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. The piece features music written by longtime Kronos collaborator, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and a film by Bill Morrison drawn from seldom-seen WWI footage from the Library of Congress. The New York Times, reviewing the New York premiere of the multimedia piece in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall last March, called it “a gripping experience.”
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Audra McDonald, set to star in the upcoming Broadway revival of the 1921 musical Shuffle Along, joins the show’s director, George C. Wolfe, who also wrote a new book for the musical, for a New York Times TimesTalk, hosted by New York Times critic at large Wesley Morris, at the Times Center in New York tonight.
Previews for Shuffle Along begin March 15 at the Music Box Theatre; opening night is April 21.
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