Margaret Bonds News

On Friday, February 4, 2022, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet will release UNCOVERED Volume 2: Florence B. Price on Azica Records. The album is the second issue of a multi-volume anthology highlighting string quartet works by historically important Black composers which aims to bring greater awareness and programming of their music.

IMG Artists Presents Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Damien Sneed, the multi-talented composer, conductor, musician, and vocalist, who kicks off 2022 with Our Song, Our Story: The New Generation of Black Voices at four locations. Created, curated, and directed by the award-winning musician, Our Song, Our Story is an evening of music highlighting some of the world's most well-known operatic arias, art songs, and spirituals.

DACAMERA, a Houston-based presenter of chamber music and jazz concerts, continues its 2021–22 chamber music series with a performance by bass-baritone Davóne Tines on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. at Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Music Director, will present the Carnegie Hall premiere of The Ballad of the Brown King: A Christmas Cantata (1954) by American composer Margaret Bonds on a text by Langston Hughes in Bonds's original orchestration, along with their 50-minute 'vest-pocket' Messiah by G.F. Handel.

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program will continue their Virtual Recital Series with Merola's Home for the Holidays featuring Merola alums soprano Amber R. Monroe ('19), tenor Edward Graves ('21), and bass Kevin Thompson ('10).

Bryce Davis and Cilliers opened their recital program with Richard Strauss' and John Henry Mackay's uplifting 'Heimliche Aufforderung' ('The Secret Invitation'). This joyous, celebratory composition was the composer's gift to his bride on their wedding day. Bryce-Davis sang it with exquisite vocal colors. Next was Robert Schumann 'Die Lotosblume' ('The Lotus Flower') in which the poet Heinrich Heine described the beauty of the love between the flower and the moon. Bryce-Davis showed the lyric tones of her voice as she told of this delicate love.

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program is bringing back the Virtual Recital Series this Fall with An Autumn Afternoon with Raehann Bryce-Davis featuring mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, a 2015 alumna of Merola Opera Program, with pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers.

After an incredible opening night of performances by the Greeley Chamber Orchestra, the UNC Asian Ensemble, and a breathtaking performance by the brilliant Colorado Piano Trio (violinist Jubal Fulks, pianist Adam Piotr Żukiewicz, and cellist Gal Faganel), Beethoven in the Rockies will have its second concert tonight featuring pianist Dr. Gjergji Gaqi.

The Dessoff Choirs today announced its 2021-22 season. Marking its first live, in-person performance in almost two years, The Dessoff Choirs kick- starts its 97th season with the New York premiere of Considering Matthew Shepard co- directed by WQXR's Elliott Forrest and Rod Caspers.

Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago begins its eleventh anniversary season with its annual Collaborative Works Festival, held in venues around Chicago from October 6–9, 2021. The 2021 Collaborative Works Festival: Strangers in a Strange Land explores themes of immigration and migration in song, featuring the works of a wide range of composers, many of whom immigrated or migrated during the course of their own lifetimes.

Fresh from winning its first Grammy Award, Experiential Orchestra, led by Music Director James Blachly, opens its 2021-22 season on Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 8pm with a concert at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St., NYC) highlighting its partnership with the African Diaspora Music Project (ADMP).

The Marsh presenting performers with a vast range of music backgrounds– from a Grammy Award-winning Armenian composer to a Principal Dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, Music Faculty Member at UC Berkeley, the Principal Keyboard of the San Francisco Symphony, and more. Set to take place at The Marsh Berkeley, the festival is comprised of three full-length musicals and a dance/musical film.

American Pianists Association announces its 2021-22 Grand Encounters season featuring performances by famed pianists Olga Kern and Michelle Cann as well as music from multiple American Pianists Awards winners, including 2021 classical winner Kenny Broberg. 

The Met today announced a new season of live performances with in-person audiences beginning fall 2021 and a new Artist in Residence, the acclaimed dancer and choreographer Bijayini Satpathy. Beginning in October, performances will once again take place in galleries throughout the Museum, as well as in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, and will feature MetLiveArts commissions and leading international musicians and composers.  

A leader in the ongoing re-imagination of classical music structures and stereotypes, Melanated Moments in Classical Music podcast releases its third season spotlighting music composed by, for, and about Black people. The podcast has caught on with a youthful, global audience that is steadily growing in over 80 countries and nearly 1200 cities.

The return of Chanticleer for a second collaborative performance at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis; and the Cantus Anniversary Gala in June 2022 at the Ordway in St. Paul, belatedly celebrating the ensemble's 25th Anniversary delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Season subscriptions will go on sale on Tuesday, August 31 at 9:30am, with single tickets becoming available on Wednesday, September 15 at 9:30am. Learn more about the full lineup here!

Two lucky readers will win two tickets to a night of American song from Broadway and beyond, with music by Ulysses Kay, William Grant Still, Margaret Bonds, and George Gershwin performed by the LA Philharmonic, featuring Aaron Diehl on piano and vocals from Julia Bullock, under the direction of Thomas Wilkins at the Hollywood Bowl on September 2.

Tickets to the 57th season of Cantata Singers go on sale to subscribers August 1, 2021 and to the general public on August 15, 2021. Learn more here!

Two lucky winners will win two tickets to the LA Philharmonic's performance of Peter and the Wolf with Viola Davis as the narrator and Dudamel conducting the orchestra, live at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday, July 15.