Stay updated with breaking news from லியா கிளைபோர்ன். Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Congressional Chorus: Afro Blue Subtitled “Celebrating Black Women in Music,” the latest virtual concert from the local choral organization pays homage to some of the greatest Black women composers, arrangers, and performers across genres. Represented in the program are contemporary artists including Tracy Chapman with her signature 1988 breakthrough “Fast Car,” which Rolling Stone ranked No. 167 on its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list, compiled in 2004 and Alicia Keys, with her signature breakthrough “Fallin ” from 2001. Naturally the setlist also includes the late Undine Smith Moore, the industry trailblazer from Virginia regarded as the “Dean of Black Women Composers.” “One of the most evil effects of racism in my time was the limits it placed upon the aspirations of Blacks,” Smith is famously quoted as saying, “so that though I have been ‘making up’ and creating music all my life, in my childhood or even in college I would no ....
In 2015, rising classical composer Carlos Simon wrote “An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave.” He dedicated it to Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and “others murdered wrongfully by an oppressive power.” Simon’s reaction to the killings was a powerful musical mix of frustration, anger and fear. “Here was a young man who could have been me or any Black man in America,” Simon said in a recent phone interview. “Murdered in cold blood. I could physically feel the fear. “Music is a physical, tactile thing, releasing that energy out. I went to the keyboard and improvised. I didn’t think; I just let my feelings go. It’s therapy for me.” ....