Quintet of the Americas to Present IN PURSUIT OF FREEDOM Concert on Mother's Day

Quintet of the Americas will present In Pursuit of Freedom, a special Mother's Day program honoring Maya Angelou on Sunday, May 10 - 3:30 PM at St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery, 131 E. 10th Street in New York, NY. The program will feature music and poetry for and by Maya Angelou and others related to the African-American experience and the In Pursuit of Freedom exhibition at Brooklyn Historical Society.

Quintet of the Americas, internationally renowned woodwind quintet, will be joined by three percussionists and narrator, Broadway actor Charles Wallace. Mr Wallace will recite I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar and share his personal reminisces of Maya Angelou.

In celebration of Mother's Day, the program will include works by two women composers, Afro-Cuban Concerto by Valerie Coleman of Imani Winds, as well as Barbara Harbach's Freeing the Caged Bird.

Other music will include two works by Carl MaultsBy - The Journey, for woodwind quintet, African and Latin percussion, and trap drum, in three movements: Procession from the Motherland Through the Middle Passage to the Americas, Spiritual, and Shout; and Kum-Ba-Ya, Marcus, for wind quintet and narrator, which provides a glimpse of Marcus Garvey, the proponent of Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism. This program is significant in that Marcus Garvey gave his first speech in New York City at St. Marks Church-in-the -Bowery.

William Grant Still's theme song for the 1939 World's Fair will also be presented along with Goin' Home, from Dvorak's New World Symphony, which was inspired by Harry T. Burleigh, Dvorak's African-American student at the National Conservatory in NYC.

The May 10 event is free and open to the public. For more info or directions, call 718-230-5189. This concert is ADA accessible. For MTA transportation information, visit tripplanner.mta.info/_start.aspx.

Charles Wallace can be seen in the upcoming Broadway production of Amazing Grace. He performed the role of Headmaster Morrow in Manhattan Theatre Club's and The Alliance Theatre's production of Choir Boy. At the Grand Theatre at Les Nuits de Fourvière, in Lyon, France, Charles appeared as Papa/Emanueli in Robert Wilson's chamber opera Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter. His Broadway credits includeMiss Saigon (John), Smokey Joe's Café, and Jekyll & Hyde. Off-Broadway has included Dina Was (Boss/Chase) and George Wolfe's Harlem Song (Apollo Theatre).

Founded in Bogota, Colombia in 1976, Quintet of the Americas has specialized in bringing music from the Western hemisphere to audiences in the United States since its arrival in New York in 1979. The group has enjoyed an international career that has taken them to concert halls throughout the Americas and Eastern Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and the Library of Congress. Performing on this concert are Karla Moe, flute, Matt Sullivan, oboe, Ben Baron, clarinet, Barbara Oldham, horn and Gina Cuffari, bassoon. Visit their website at www.quintet.org and become their friend at www.facebook.com/groups/325982319921.

DETAILS:

What: Quintet of the Americas Presents Mother's Day Program Honoring Maya Angelou

When: Sunday, May 10 at 3:30 PM

Where: St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery, 131 E. 10th Street in Manhattan

URL: www.quintet.org/concerts.html