Local choirs, SU performers pay tribute to Black artists at Hendricks Chapel
From Duke Ellington to original pieces by the College of Visual and Performing Arts faculty, the Black History Month Concert included different performances of various genres. The concert also brought Syracuse University choir members together to honor the celebration Emily Steinberger | Daily Orange File Photo
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Hundreds of attendees gathered inside Hendricks Chapel to listen to the works of Black musicians and composers throughout history on Sunday night. The sounds of the saxophone filled the chamber, followed by trumpet, clarinet and the voices of Syracuse University choir students.
“As humans do, they often come in with expectations or biases for what is Black music, but this concert really shows the incredible variety,” Anne Laver, artistic director of the Malmgren Concert Series, said.
This year’s Black History Month Concert featured performances from the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble, Hendricks Chapel Choir, Crouse Chorale and the Concert Choir. Students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts also performed. A tribute to Black composers, Sunday’s performance was a part of Hendricks’ Malmgren Concert Series.
SU freshman Mia Montenegro performed in the show as a part of the Concert Choir. She said performing “Walk In Jerusalem,” a song commonly performed in historically Black churches, was a “meaningful” experience.
“This is my first year in choir at Syracuse. Everybody is so welcoming, and being a part of something like this has brought me closer with others, no matter our level of experience,” Montenegro said.
The concert highlighted the wide range of work done by Black artists, in addition to the more mainstream gospel and jazz, Laver said. The concert included a range of pieces from Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” to Ahmed Al Abaca’s “The Crown Suite.”
During the program, a wind ensemble performed “Flight & Free” from The Sibling Bards and Their Soliloquies, which was composed by Ivan Malcolm, a current VPA graduate student.
For Malcolm, this performance was a full-circle moment since he recently completed the composition. Sunday marked the first time “Flight & Free” was performed in its entirety.
“For a while now, I’ve been working on this,” Malcolm said. “Being able to see this, and the people in the audience, was really awesome to see and hear.”
The “Voices from the Light,” a piece originally composed by Dorothy Rudd Moore in 1997, showcased the intersection between visual art and musical performance.
The song, which has only been performed five times ever before Sunday, was a request from a graduate student, Laver said. On a screen behind the choir, lines moved up and down corresponding to different keyboard notes and voice pitches. The graphic and live dancers create a special rendition of this piece, she said.
The concert was also a moment for SU students to showcase the works they have been practicing for months. Amaryllis Morel, a member of the Hendricks Chapel Choir and the Concert Choir, performed a solo piano piece, “Troubled Water” from Spiritual Suite, by Margaret Bonds.
“The celebration of a Black composer is something that I’ll always welcome, so being able to do that was great, especially with my fondness for Margaret Bonds,” Morel said.
The last performance of the evening called on all the choirs and the audience members to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by brothers James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, a hymn widely known as “The Black National Anthem.”
The song echoed throughout the chapel. Laver said it is now more important than ever to attend and share these moments with one another.
“With music, you can easily learn something you haven’t experienced before, in this case with a few hundred other people,” Laver said. “It’s important for us to come together and experience music together.
