Lara Downes Presents OH, BEAUTIFUL: A SUMMERTIME CELEBRATION OF AMERICAN MUSIC

GatherNYC, the revolutionary weekly concert series normally held at SubCulture in downtown Manhattan, has launched "Mindful Minutes" by GatherNYC: brief live-streamed performances several times a week at 11am, featuring artists from the GatherNYC community and beyond. The series continues on Friday, July 3 with the celebrated pianist and frequent "Mindful Minutes" artist, pianist Lara Downes. GatherNYC Co-Artistic directors, cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd also make a special guest appearance.

Lara Downes presents "Oh Beautiful: A Summertime Celebration of American Music."
Friday, July 3rd, 11am ET

WATCH HERE

[https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=199391524731103]

About the performance, Ms. Downes writes:

"This American summer is one of uprising and upheaval, crisis and chaos. We're revisiting our history, reckoning with our essential ideals: Unalienable Rights... Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. This is a summer of change.

"I want to celebrate the beauty that we create as we move along this American journey, always changing.

"These are the sounds of summer by some great American composers - and these are their stories:

• Florence Price (b. 1887), the first Black woman to have a composition performed by a major orchestra.

• Irving Berlin (b. 1888), born Israel Berlin in the Russian Empire, immigrated through Ellis Island at the age of 5. One of the most prolific and beloved songwriters of all time, in the words of Jerome Kern: "Irving Berlin has no place in American music -- he is American music."

• William Grant Still (b. 1895), the first Black conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra, the first Black composer to be performed by a leading orchestra and a major opera company, and to have an opera performed on national television.

• John Wineglass (b. 1973), a leading Black composer whose work brings to light social issues of the past and present, his latest choral symphony is Unburied, Unmourned, Unmarked: Requiem for Rice.

All performances take place on Facebook live at 11am EST, and will be available for viewing after the broadcast.

The performances are public and available to all, but donations to support the continuation of the "Mindful Minutes" project, designed to offer compensation to artists who have lost much of their livelihood for the foreseeable future, are welcome. GatherNYC stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and will donate 10% of all funds raised to the American Civil Liberties Union.

DONATE: https://www.facebook.com/donate/324303348556582/

Announcements of further "Mindful Minutes" presentations including dates and artists will be made on GatherNYC's social media channels.

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