Nicoletta Berry, Joshua Blue, Maria Brea & Jorell Williams to Celebrate Adolphus Hailstork at Merkin Hall
Marshall Opera will celebrate the composer's 85th birthday year with a concert featuring the world premiere of Our Land and excerpts from Common Ground.
Marshall Opera will celebrate distinguished American composer Adolphus Hailstork during his 85th birthday year with a program of his vocal music on Tuesday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Kaufman Music Center's Merkin Hall.
Conducted by Mark Shapiro, the concert will feature sopranos Nicoletta Berry and Maria Brea, tenor Joshua Blue, appearing courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera, and baritone Jorell Williams.
The program will include the world premiere of Hailstork's Our Land, with lyrics by Langston Hughes, performed by Brea. Brea will also perform Sing Her a Song, set to a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Williams will perform Nobody Knows, Hailstork's 2018 concert aria for baritone and string quartet with text by Herbert Woodward Martin. The work was commissioned by the Harlem Chamber Players to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in English North America.
Berry will perform Summer.Life.Song, Hailstork's 2017 work for soprano, clarinet and string quartet set to the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Blue will perform Four Romantic Love Songs, a 1994 song cycle setting poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The cycle includes “My Heart to Thy Heart,” “Invitation to Love,” “Longing” and “Good-Night.”
The program will also feature excerpts from Hailstork's 1995 opera Common Ground, commissioned by Dayton Opera with lyrics by Dunbar.
Shapiro will lead an ensemble featuring violinists Pauline Kim Harris and Maria Im, violist Kayla Williams, cellist Laura Metcalf, double bassist Kebra-Seyoun Charles, clarinetist Yoonah Kim, harpist Kirsten Agresta Copely and pianist Brian Fenwick.
Hailstork, who turned 85 in April, has composed three operas in addition to orchestral and choral works, chamber music, solo instrumental works and art songs. His recent works include Tulsa 1921, commemorating the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre; A Knee on the Neck, a requiem cantata in memory of George Floyd; Symphonies No. 4 and 5; and JFK: The Last Speech.
His music has been performed by orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Hailstork is Professor Emeritus at Old Dominion University.
CONCERT INFORMATION
Marshall Opera's celebration of Adolphus Hailstork will take place Tuesday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Hall in New York City. Tickets are $30 and are available through Kaufman Music Center.
Marshall Opera's season will continue April 24, 2027 at Opera America with the premiere of the Douglas Moore Song Book, featuring music by Moore alongside works by his Columbia University colleagues and other composers, including Jack Beeson, John Kander and Marc Blitzstein.
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