Baltimore Choral Arts Presents LAND OF THE FREE, 11/3

Baltimore Choral Arts salutes the 1812 Anniversary and our national anthem, and presents the Baltimore premiere of Ysaye Barnwell's Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem, on Saturday, November 3, at 8 pm in Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium.

The concert opens with David Hildebrand, of the Colonial Music Institute, in a discussion with Tom Hall, and musical demonstration of the history of the Star Spangled Banner, written in Maryland by Francis Scott Key in 1812. Other iconic songs important to America's cultural heritage will also be explained and performed by Baltimore Choral Arts Music Director Tom Hall and the Choral Arts Chorus. In song and engaging commentary, the program demonstrates how music played a crucial role in the political and social lives of Americans near the turn of the century.

The idea of freedom in the same time period will be examined from the perspective of African slaves and their descendants, with the Baltimore premiere of Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem. Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, prolific composer of choral music, and a noted leader of community sings, has set to music for Chorus, Orchestra and soloists, a poem by Dr. Marilyn Nelson, which tells the story of Fortune, a slave whose skeleton was assembled by his owner, a doctor from Waterbury, CT, and displayed in a museum there. Dr. Nelson's moving eulogy to Fortune, who died a little more than a decade before the War of 1812, reminds us that freedom from British dominance and intervention in American affairs did not translate into basic freedom for slaves, whose national emancipation did not occur until several decades later.

The Baltimore Choral Arts Chorus will be joined by the Heritage Signature Chorale from Washington, DC, the Soulful Symphony, an African Drum Ensemble, and vocal soloists Stephen Salters and Shannon Finney, led by guest conductor Dr. Stanley Thurston.

A post-concert Choral Conversation includes a discussion with Music Director Tom Hall, composer Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, librettist and narrator Dr. Marilyn Nelson, conductor Dr. Stanley Thurston, and the cast of Fortune's Bones.

Tickets are on sale now from $25 - $38. Tickets for students with ID are half price.
For tickets and information call 410-523-7070 or go to www.baltimorechoralarts.org.

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