upcoming events
On March 16-17, 2024, I will present at LA Phil's Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk, “Marginalized Mavericks: Minority Composers Redefining Classical Traditions,” at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The talk begins one hour prior to each concert and will offer context for the weekend’s program.
Saturday, March 16, 2024 – 8:00PM
Sunday, March 17, 2024 – 2:00pm
Program
Ballade in A minor, Op. 33, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein
La Lección Tres, Victor Wooten
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Thomas Wilkins, conductor
LA Phil, Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk, at Walt Disney Concert Hall
On November 2-3, 2023, I will present at LA Phil's Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The talk will offer context for the weekend’s program.
Thursday, November 2, 2023 – 8:00PM
Friday, November 3, 2023 – 9:00pm
Program
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in Concert, John Williams Spotlight
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
LA Phil, Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk, at Walt Disney Concert Hall
On April 28, 2023, at 7PM + April 29, 2023, at 1PM.
I will present at LA Phil's Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The talk will offer context for the weekend’s program.
Program
Thomas Adès, Violin Concerto, “Concentric Paths”
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5, Op. 64
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Elim Chan, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin
LA Phil, Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk, at Walt Disney Concert Hall
"The Congo Square Ideology: COngo Square is, not was"
New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, a special place where African and European aesthetics mixed, creating the unique cultural expression known as jazz. So, the story goes. This well-worn story, known by some as the jazz creation myth, has been told and retold. And Congo Square, an area located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, now known as Louis Armstrong Park, plays a central role. Many scholars have unpacked the myths about the formation of the city's jazz tradition, attempting to correct the "falsehoods" that have crept into scholarly works concerning Congo Square. But, with the use of past tense, jazz historians have relegated Congo Square to the dustbin of history. This paper will argue that Black New Orleanians today actively participate in a thriving, living tradition that traces its roots to Congo Square, where an ideology was born [. . .]
On December 4, 2022, at 1PM, I presented LA Phil's Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The talk offered context for the afternoon's program.
December 4, 2022, at 1PM
Program
Tchaikovsky — Selections from The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker Suite (Tchaikovsky/Ellington/Strayhorn; arr. for orch. Tyzik)
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Paris Opera Ballet Film Collab
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus
Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Artistic Director
LA Phil, Upbeat Live!, pre-concert talk, at Walt Disney Concert Hall
"The New Orleans Second Line: A Tradition on the Move"
In New Orleans, Louisiana, nearly every occasion is marked with a celebratory parade, most famously the Mardi Gras processions that seemingly take over the city during Carnival Time. But throughout the year, there are jazz funerals and parades known as "second lines" that fill the "Backatown" neighborhoods of New Orleans with the jubilant sounds of brass band music. Despite this, and the rapidly growing body of well-researched and well-meaning literature by "new jazz studies" scholars, second line culture remains excluded from jazz history courses the world over in favor of a single text that provides an "easier read" for undergraduate students. The resulting texts provide incomplete surveys that do little to correct previously held assumptions about jazz and are now deeply embedded within American culture, serving as an indoctrinating canon that limits the brass band's role and its practitioners within the jazz tradition [. . .]
ANNUAL FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY BRASS DAY
University Theater (map)
Featuring rehearsals, masterclasses, and side-by-side performances with area high school musicians and members of the FAU brass community, under the direction of Assistant Professor of Trumpet, Dr. Courtney Jones.
QUEENS RULE
Singletary Center for the Arts (map)
Among the pieces being performed will be the 15-minute Orchestral Suite from the opera Queenie Pie (arr. Marc T. Gaspard Bolin). The suite will be premiered by the Lexington Philharmonic in collaboration with the University of Kentucky Opera Theater, and conducted by Guest Conductor, Tong Chen.