Concert: A Spiritual Fantasy

Castle of Our Skins
Matthew Vera, violin
Annie Rabbat, violin
Ashleigh Gordon, viola
Lev Mamuya, cello
Special Guest Student Performers from Project STEP

WHITE (arr. Rita POFIRIS) Spiritual from From the Cotton Fields, Opus 18
PRICE Negro Folksongs in Counterpoint for string quartet
TILLIS Spiritual Fantasy No. 12 for string quartet (25 mins)
Anthony R. GREEN Catto’s Courage
(featuring special guest student performers from Project STEP)

A Spiritual Fantasy highlights African American composers who had a woven connection with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and William Grant Still: Clarence Cameron White was born five years after Coleridge-Taylor and later studied with him; Florence Price was born six years before Grant Still and grew up as neighbors in Arkansas; Frederick Tillis was born the same year audiences first heard Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony. All were greatly influenced by the Negro Spiritual, a truly unique expression of African American strength, resilience, and community. A Spiritual Fantasy explores these themes in music, knowing the same sense of strength, resilience, and community were pivotal forces that inspired civil rights activist Octavius Catto, whose story is told in the BSO's later performance of The Passion of Octavius Catto.

Co-Presented with Boston Conservatory at Berklee