‘Ten Freedom Summers’ is a large work inspired by the activity of the civil rights movement: from the Niagara Falls Congress of 1905, to President Harry S. Truman signing Executive Order 9981 in 1948, up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s Memphis speech in 1968. In 19 movements, scored for...
with avant-garde jazz, drone, modern musical production, and historical narrative. smith, a composer with a long history writing ambitiously proportioned works, has described the oratorio as a “meditation” on the civil rights movement, dedicated to “rosa parks, a person of exceptional co...
DC premiereofTen Freedom Summers, trumpeter/composer/ musical innovatorWadada Leo Smith’ssoul-searching tribute to the Civil Rights Movement paying homage to heroes including Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King, Jr.The event will also premiere two new...