Conductor Anthony Trecek-King will bring to life the music of Nathaniel Dett, Harry T. Burleigh, Undine Smith Moore and many more at South Main Baptist Church.
“Once I asked him to be our guest conductor, we have had a number of conversations,” Simpson says. “Each one has given me a greater sense of admiration for him and a greater sense of comfort with the fact that he and I, although coming from different backgrounds, share many common visions that will be represented in this concert.”
In one way or another, the songs of Ancestor’s Dream explore the rich legacy of spirituals, which form a fundamental building block of American folk music. These songs have endured as history has been less kind to Black composers’ more classically minded efforts: despite the rapturous reception William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony received at Carnegie Hall in 1934, it never really cracked the standard repertoire.
“If you think about the conditions in which the spiritual was created, it’s one of the most horrific conditions that have ever been kind of placed upon a body of people in our history,” he continues. “And so the singing of the spiritual, it was a way to create community. It was a way to create connection when connection was constantly being broken.”
“That’s hopefully what we're going to achieve next week, in our rehearsals and in performances: finding that balance that when you’re singing a single piece of music, that there is this oppression and fear and just a horrible situation; but then there’s also this other side of it,” he explains. “That through the singing of it, we’re coping and we’re finding hope, and eventually we’re in a search for freedom.
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