FOUNDING MOTHERS Concert to Benefit NYC Women & Girls Charities
The program features works by Florence Price and world premieres at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church.
Local activist orchestra PROTESTRA will present a concert on Saturday, June 27 at 2 PM at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church (263 W. 86th St.). Titled "Founding Mothers," the program will feature works by contemporary and historic American women composers.
This concert is produced in partnership with the American Composers Forum as part of the multi-year Recomposing America initiative and will feature newly commissioned works by two women composers living and working in NYC. Timed with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Recomposing America aims to refresh and reimagine the "who," "what," and "why" of the United States and the stories therein. The new orchestral works will highlight the concepts of girlhood and womanhood as they relate to the history and future of America.
The concert opens with the premiere of Matriarch by PROTESTRA Associate Conductor Danielle Jagelski, written in honor of the knowledge systems created and sustained by the enduring wisdom of indigenous female leadership. The second premiere, JL Marlor's YELLFIRE, features voice and electric guitar alongside the orchestra and explores female rage becoming a force of transformation. The program closes with Florence Price's Symphony No. 4, the final symphony composed by the first African-American woman to have her work premiered by a top American orchestra.
Visit protestra.org for tickets ($30 general admission, $10 students) and more information. PROTESTRA will donate proceeds from ticket sales to two NYC-based charities whose work supports and uplifts women and girls: Hour Children and Girls for Gender Equity.
ABOUT PROTESTRA
PROTESTRA (protest + orchestra) is a grassroots orchestra based in NYC that bridges the divide between advocacy and classical music. Since 2017, PROTESTRA has educated audiences about contemporary issues of social justice through orchestral performances, donating a portion of ticket proceeds to mission- and policy-driven nonprofit organizations related to the concerts' themes. Since September 2020, PROTESTRA has held ten issue-centered benefit concerts that have reached several thousand in-person and online viewers, collectively raised $50,000+ in audience donations for nonprofit beneficiaries, and provided $44,000+ of paid work to 300+ musicians.
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