Soulful Symphony Returns to Baltimore to Perform 10 Year Celebration Concert, “We Are…Soulful Symphony,” October 30

By -

Darin Atwater conducts an evening of the Best of Soulful Symphony, Classical, Jazz, Gospel, Motown and excerpts of Paint Factory, Song in a Strange Land and other audience favorites

Soulful Symphony celebrates its 10th anniversary with a concert at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. Founded and conducted by Darin Atwater, this 75-member orchestra is comprised primarily by African American and Latino musicians. Mr. Atwater served as Composer-in-Residence with the Baltimore Symphony from 2004-2007, a collaboration that produced many evening length works such as Song in a Strange Land and Paint Factory. Excerpts from these works and more will be reprised for Soulful fans at the anniversary celebration.

Song in a Strange Land is an exploration of the diverse musical traditions of American music—blues, jazz, gospel, African clave, reggae and bluegrass. Composed for a large ensemble of string orchestra, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, percussion, rhythm section, choir and soloist, Song in a Strange Land utilizes the Spiritual as a canvas for the creation of diverse compositional statements. In Mr. Atwater’s view, “no other form of music lends itself better to this endeavor, for in the Spiritual, one can experience the full spectrum of human emotions – joy and sorrow, hope and despair, suffering and jubilation. The Spiritual represents a people possessing optimism in the face of adversity.”

In composing the original music and lyrics for Paint Factory, Mr. Atwater endeavored to explore hip hop’s positive potential and redeeming value, while separating it from “gangsta” rap and other subgenres which have at times cast dark shadows across the entire form. “Hip hop has grown into a global phenomenon, present on all continents and performed by all races—it’s a uniting force. But over the years, hip hop has been corrupted by commercialism, and infected with racist, sexist and homophobic messages,” commented Mr. Atwater. “Paint Factory goes back to hip hop’s lyrical and musical roots to spread positive messages. I wanted to re-contextualize hip hop and demonstrate a whole new way of looking at the art form.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more