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EDP_2223-Listening-Project

More to Hear: The Listening Project 2022

Fri Oct 7, 2022

Orchestra Hall

The Minnesota Orchestra’s new Listening Project has grown out of an ongoing initiative to spotlight the music of historically underrepresented composers and to collaborate with a broader group of composers living today. This concert, conducted by Kensho Watanabe and hosted by renowned performer, scholar and professor Dr. Louise Toppin, features performances of six works that will be recorded to aid and encourage future programming of this music by other orchestras, including Eleanor Alberga’s The Soul’s Expression and Margaret Bonds’ Spirituals, both of which feature bass-baritone Christopher Humbert Jr. as soloist. Ticketholders will receive a complimentary digital download of each piece from the performance in early November via email. The recordings will also be shared broadly in partnership with the African Diaspora Music Project.

A Few Things to Know

  1. Last year, musicians kickstarted the Listening Project with a week of rehearsals that realized the first professional recordings of five works by five Black composers. This concerts marks the public debut of the ongoing initiative. Learn more about the process.
  2. Conductor Kensho Watanabe and bass-baritone Christopher Humbert Jr. will each make their Minnesota Orchestra debut at this performance. Humbert will perfom as soloist in both Eleanor Alberga’s The Soul’s Expression and Margaret Bonds’ Spirituals.
  3. Dr. Louise Toppin is the founder and editor of the African Diaspora Music Project, a research tool dedicated to creating a repository of music, scores and programmatic information to provide access and encourage the exploration and performance of music by composers of the African Diaspora. Learn more about ADMP at africandiasporamusicproject.org, and find previous recordings from the Minnesota Orchestra for this project here.

Explore the concert extras

Date & Time

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  • COLERIDGE-TAYLOR

    Idyll

  • ALBERGA

    The Soul’s Expression

  • SMITH

    Contours

  • INTERMISSION
  • HAILSTORK

    Lachrymosa: 1919

  • BONDS

    Spirituals

  • PRICE

    Colonial Dance

Artists

Minnesota Orchestra

Kensho Watanabe

conductor

Dr. Louise Toppin

host

Your Concert Experience

Join us for Q&A’s, hosted discussions, pre and post-show drinks with musicians and more. All free with your concert ticket!

Pre-Concert Talk and Performance

When: Fri Oct 7 | 7:15pm
Where: Target Atrium

Join Minnesota Orchestra musicians Sam Bergman and Susie Park for a discussion about the conception and goals of The Listening Project, the orchestra's ongoing initiative to spotlight the music of historically underrepresented composers and to collaborate with a broader group of composers living today.

They will be joined by Merrin Guice Gill (soprano), Marcus Simmons (bass-baritone), and Herb Johnson (piano) who will perform songs by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and their contemporaries.

Accessibility Services

  • Armless & Bariatric Chairs
  • Assistive Listening Devices
  • Large-Print Programs
  • Noise-Cancelling Headphones
  • Service Animals
  • Wheelchair & Accessible Seating

Additional services are available upon request.

With this concert we gratefully recognize Cy and Paula DeCosse for their generosity as lead sponsor of this project.

Pre- and Post-Concert Activities Sponsored By

UBS

Sponsored by

MSAB