| The Ensemble Du Monde and Music Director, Marlon Daniel, will perform works by composers of African descent from the time of Mozart till today. The concert features the New York premiere of Trevor Weston’s evocative and newly revised work for violin, narrator and chamber orchestra, The People Could Fly based on African American folklore.
Trevor’s inspiration for this new work was the African American folktale, “The People Could Fly”. He chose this subject matter for several reasons: the imagery of enslaved Africans escaping plantations in the US, the ideals of hope in a desperate and deplorable situation, the transcendence of oppression and the fantastical of the idea of Black people having the magical ability to fly back to Africa (some believed a metaphor for the underground railroad).
The first documented version of this folktale is connected to the Gullah people, African Americans living in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Trevor’s piece uses performance practices from Gullah Spirituals in his work. The syncopated foot stamping and clapping pattern in Gullah Spirituals gave Trevor the impression of humans trying to fly. For this reason, Gullah performance practices are used by the string orchestra (players to stamp their feet while playing their instruments).
Dynamic young violinist Josh Henderson, who performed the original world premiere of the work and the incomparable Chapman Roberts, of Broadway fame and creator of Black Stars of the Great White Way, will highlight this performance.
Other works on the program include the Symphonie in G Major, Op.11, No. 1 by Afro-Caribbean classical period composer Joseph Bologne (1745 –1799), Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s virtuosic Four Novellettes, Op. 52 and William Grant Still’s poetic tone poem, Mother and Child.
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