PostClassical Ensemble (PCE), for 18 years one of the few true mavericks among American chamber orchestras, rings in the new year by forging ahead with its plans for the 2021-2022 season. The Ensemble's Executive Director Michelle Rathbun notes "We at PostClassical Ensemble are thrilled to be presenting live concerts once again! We're eager not only to welcome our faithful audiences back to the concert hall but to invite new communities to discover the thoughtful, cross-disciplinary programs that have been so elegantly designed by our co-founders, Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez and Executive Producer Joseph Horowitz."
PCE's season consists of four concerts, presented in November 2021 and planned for January, February and March of 2022. (In an abundance of caution due to COVID 19, the January concert has been postponed to Wednesday, 20 April 22 at 7:30pm.) Venues for the concerts have been chosen for their relevance to the programs themselves and to the audiences PCE wishes to reach. Three of the season's offerings are devoted to the group's new initiative, The Rediscovery and Renewal of Black Classical Music, which coincides with the publication of Mr. Horowitz’s new book Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music by Norton.
The remaining concert, Mahler's Fourth: A Wicked New Look, is the premiere of a bold re-imagining of Mahler's Fourth Symphony which spotlights the many disparate influences found in the original - jazz-like riffs on itself, constant variation, folk and dance tunes, and inner conflicts and contradictions expressing Mahler's own struggles as an assimilated Jew in the Hapsburg capital that was both artistically liberating and anti-Semitic. In the midst of this musical ferment will be a take on the symphony's whirling scherzo, which becomes a concertino for bass trombone, featuring master trombonist David Taylor, recognized for decades as the pre-eminent virtuoso on his instrument.
Mahler's Fourth: A Wicked New Look
Wednesday, 20 April 2022 at 7:30 p.m.
Terrace Theater, The Kennedy Center
2700 F St NW
Washington, DC 20566
David Taylor, bass trombone
Madeleine Murnick, soprano
PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez
Produced by Joseph Horowitz
A post-concert discussion will follow the performance.
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As for the primary focus of PCE's 2021-2022 season, Executive Producer Joseph Horowitz explains that "The Rediscovery and Renewal of Black Classical Music seeks to celebrate consequential composers who have too long been neglected for all their profound contributions to American orchestral music. PCE has long been a national leader in unearthing this buried history. By contextualizing this story – where the music came from, why it disappeared, and what to make of it today – we reflect on our nation’s complex cultural history and gain insight into how to nurture understanding and dialogue." The first of these concerts took place in November:
The Souls of Black Folk: Rediscovering Black Classical Music
In partnership with Howard University and the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts
Sunday, 14 November 2021 at 5:00 p.m.
All Souls Church: 1500 Harvard St NW (@16th), Washington, DC
Elizabeth G. Hill, piano
Melissa Constantin, soprano
Patrick Hamilton, Daks McClettie, Lauren Smith, Lauryn Williams, readers
Prepared by Ricky Ramon and John Woods III
CAAPA Chorale conducted by Music Director Greg Watkins
Chester Burke Jr., pianist
PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez
Jenn White, host
The program highlights Black women composers Florence Price (3 compositions, including a world premiere) and Margaret Bonds (6 compositions, including a world premiere), explores the insights of Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois through texts and unpublished letters, and weaves together an illustration of their continuing legacy in shaping American culture. Featuring pianist Elizabeth Hill and the CAAPA Chorale; narrated by Jenn White. This concert was recorded and excerpts were broadcast on NPR's program 1A, hosted by Jenn White, on Thanksgiving Day, 25 November 21, and on Martin Luther King Day, 17 January 2022. Listeners responded to the 1A program enthusiastically: "...this is one of the most important and moving broadcasts I've ever heard on NPR."; "My wife and I, regular listeners to your broadcast, have rarely heard a more interesting and challenging radio program."; "I loved the show today on classical music and Black performers/composers and connection between music and culture. I cried."
The Black Virtuoso Tradition
In partnership with Levine Music and THEARC
Saturday, 26 February 2021 at 3:00 p.m.
THEARC Black Box Theater | 1901 Mississippi Ave SE, Washington, DC
Elizabeth G. Hill, piano
Steven Mayer, piano
Melissa Constantin, soprano
A concert of virtuoso piano fireworks drawing on the African-American vernacular. Pianist Elizabeth Hill and noted stride-piano specialist Steve Mayer take audiences on a musical journey playing works of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Antonin Dvorak, Scott Joplin, James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, George Gershwin and Margaret Bonds. N.B.: PostClassical Ensemble is hosting masterclasses with Elizabeth Hill and Steven Mayer prior to the concert, from 12pm-2pm in THEARC black box.
Hope in the Night
In partnership with Duke Ellington School of the Arts
Alumni Association
18 March 2022 at 7:00PM
7:00PM Pre concert discussion with George Shirley
7:30PM Concert
Duke Ellington School of the Arts
3500 R Street NW
Washington D.C. 20007
George Shirley, tenor
PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez
PCE celebrates composer William Dawson and features a forgotten masterpiece from this major Black symphonist, as well as the world premiere of his Negro Work Song. At its 1934 premiere by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony received a thunderous ovation and was hailed by some as the highest achievement in American symphonic music. But Dawson never found a publisher, and the music disappeared from view. Louis Moreau Gottschalk was raised on Black Creole music in New Orleans and is the earliest American composer whose music we still hear. His lively and energetic "symphony", Night in the Tropics, featured Cuban percussion and was among the best known orchestral works in 19th century America. The concert opens with spirituals sung by the great George Shirley.
