Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider & More Announced for VOICES OF HOPE Festival
Programming will also feature Kronos Quartet, Ute Lemper, Jason Moran, Samora Pinderhughes, Jordi Savall, Somi, Third Coast Percussion / Movement Art Is & more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Mar. 26, 2021
From April 16-30, 2021, Carnegie Hall will present Voices of Hope, an online festival that examines the resilience of artists, exploring works that they felt compelled to create despite-and often because of-appalling circumstances and human tragedy. Over the two weeks, Carnegie Hall's first-ever digital festival explores this theme through more than 100 events including digital programming presented by Carnegie Hall and more than 40 leading cultural and academic institutions across New York City and beyond.
Click here for a day-by-day "schedule at a glance" of Voices of Hope festival events.
Click here for a complete festival event schedule by genre.
HIGHLIGHTS OF VOICES OF HOPE FESTIVAL: Carnegie Hall STREAMED EVENTS
With 16 free streamed performances presented by Carnegie Hall nightly over the course of two weeks, the Voices of Hope festival's musical programming includes the world premiere of new works commissioned by Carnegie Hall as well as new projects and music created in response to the world we are living in today. Alongside its musical presentations, the Hall's line-up will also include the Emmy Award-nominated film A Mother's Rite, a socially-charged ballet solo set to Stravinsky's iconic The Rite of Spring, featuring Courtney Celeste Spears from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and produced by Jeremy McQueen's Black Iris Project (April 26 at 7 p.m.).
Carnegie Hall's streaming line-up will include:Boston Symphony Orchestra & Andris Nelsons: Shostakovich Symphony No. 4
The two-week Voices of Hope festival kicks off on April 16 with a streamed performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by Andris Nelsons, featuring Shostakovich's powerful Symphony No. 4. Having been savaged in the Soviet-run press for his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and warned about composing music in a similar style, the 20th-century symphonic master cancelled the premiere of his fourth symphony in 1936 and placed it in his desk until it was finally performed in 1961. Scored for 125 players, the symphony's edgy intensity, sardonic humor, and heartbreaking melancholy make for a riveting emotional journey.
Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider: Dreamers
The following night, vocalist Magos Herrera and the daring Brooklyn Rider join forces to pay tribute to the "Dreamers," artists who kept the hopes of the oppressed alive with their music and poetry. The program showcases treasures from the Ibero-American songbook, reimagined in brilliant and uplifting new arrangements, set to texts by such literary giants as Octavio Paz, Federico GarcÃa Lorca, and others who suffered under repressive regimes.
Ute Lemper: Songs for Eternity
Acclaimed chanteuse and actress Ute Lemper offers a program entitled Songs for Eternity, sung in Yiddish and German, highlighting the inspiring courage of composers and poets who created music despite the horrors of the ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust. Accompanied by an instrumental ensemble, Lemper performs songs of rebellion, hope, defiance, and life-affirming resilience, offering stark testimony to the best and worst in humanity.Jerusalem Quartet
Daring music written by two 20th-century composers who created despite war and oppression will be heard when the Jerusalem Quartet performs excerpts from Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 2-written during his evacuation to a remote Soviet region at the onset of Germany's 1941 invasion of Russia-paired with Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces for String Quartet from 1923, music with lively rhythmic flair, pungent harmonies, and folk accents from the composer's Czech homeland. A Jew with a love for jazz and ragtime, Schulhoff perished in a German concentration camp in 1942.Third Coast Percussion / Movement Art Is: Metamorphosis
Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion joins forces with the groundbreaking choreography of Lil Buck and Jon Boogz from Movement Art Is for an intimate program, including two works co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, exploring the duality of human nature. Through Metamorphosis, they collaboratively illustrate universal themes cast through the experiential lens of young Black men growing up in America today. Two disparate styles of street dance blend seamlessly with new music by Jlin and Tyondai Braxton, as well as Third Coast Percussion's acclaimed arrangements of Philip Glass's Aguas da Amazonia.Somi
Influenced by her Ugandan and Rwandan heritage, vocalist Somi's elegant amalgam of jazz and African music will move audiences with a short performance recently filmed in Senegal, shown following the premiere of in the absence of things, an experimental short film that blends spoken word, art song, movement, and deconstructed concert recordings. The film is Somi's meditation on the vacancy that a performer feels in the absence of the living stage and the spiritual consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on creative practices.Jason Moran: James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: The Absence of Ruin
Jason Moran will perform James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: The Absence of Ruin-the celebrated jazz pianist's acclaimed meditation on the life and legacy of James Reese Europe that tells the extraordinary story of the development of jazz, African American culture, and the role of music in relation to racism and prejudice. During World War I, Europe-an iconic figure in the evolution of African American music-was a member of the 93rd Division's 369th Infantry Regiment from New York (commonly referred to as "The Harlem Hellfighters") and bandleader of the regiment's military ensemble that popularized the new spirit of jazz to a war-torn French nation fascinated with Black culture. This project was co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW: WWI Centenary Art Commissions, Serious, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Berliner Festspiele / Jazzfest Berlin.Davóne Tines and Jennifer Koh
In the premiere of a new music film, dynamic violinist Jennifer Koh and pathbreaking opera singer Davóne Tines collaborate to distill the history of Asian American oppression, and highlight the untold story of solidarity between Asian Americans and the Black community. Images that document violence against Asian Americans are juxtaposed with video of Koh and Tines performing Ken Ueno's arrangement of "Strange Fruit," a song that has historically been an unflinching expression of Black oppression. This work is the result of a three-year collaborative journey between Koh, Tines, Ueno, and the dramaturg Kee-Yoon Nahm.Kronos Quartet
The musically daring and socially conscious Kronos Quartet performs a powerful program that includes arrangements by Jacob Garchik; and selections by Terry Riley and others. The evening's centerpiece is an excerpt from Mary Kouyoumdjian's Silent Cranes, inspired by an Armenian folk song and depicting the voices of those tragically lost in the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Also included is a selection from Zachary James Watkins's Peace Be Till, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and featuring the recorded voice of Clarence B. Jones, speechwriter and personal counsel to Martin Luther King Jr.Jordi Savall: Bal-Kan
Another musical dialogue brought about by conquest, oppression, and conflict-that of the Balkans, and the Roma and Armenian diasporas-is the focus of Bal-Kan: Honey and Blood, Music in the Ottoman Empire, featuring viola da gamba virtuoso, conductor and musicologist Jordi Savall. From the reign of the Ottoman Turks to the political divisions of the 20th century, Savall calls the Balkans "at one and the same time a rich meeting point and the theater of dramatic confrontations." This program explores the extraordinarily diverse cultural traditions that adapted and flourished during the Ottoman Empire's regime.Ute Lemper: Rendezvous with Marlene
Ute Lemper returns to perform Rendezvous with Marlene, based on a three-hour phone exchange in 1987 between Marlene Dietrich and Lemper when the legendary Dietrich was living as a recluse in her Paris apartment. In this one-woman show, Lemper shares Dietrich's story and celebrates songs that highlight various chapters of her career from the Berlin cabaret years to her later collaboration with Burt Bacharach. In one of the most poignant periods of her life, Dietrich was especially vocal against the Nazis during World War II, renouncing her German citizenship and passionately supporting Jews and other dissidents who-like her-faced discrimination and retribution. Musical selections include "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Falling in Love Again," and "Lili Marleen."National Symphony & Gianandrea Noseda: Casella's Symphony No. 2
The National Symphony Orchestra, led by Gianandrea Noseda, performs Casella's Symphony No. 2, a highly emotional work filled with surging rhythms and dark orchestral colors. Written by the Italian composer before the start of World War I, it is believed that this rarely heard large-scale symphony might have been victim of cultural bias stoked by nationalist beliefs.Samora Pinderhughes: Grief
Carnegie Hall's programming continues with Grief, a new project of revolutionary songs by pianist-vocalist-composer Samora Pinderhughes that was filmed for Voices of Hope and will receive its premiere screening during the festival. It calls out the sufferings caused by racial capitalism, policing and prison systems, and oppressive ideologies through freedom songs, abolitionist songs, and songs that unpack what so many have experienced this past year, while also suggesting pathways for collective response and resistance. Commissioned by Chamber Music America and New Music USA, Grief was conceived by Pinderhughes and directed by filmmaker Christian Padron with engineering by Jack DeBoe, inspired by the black-and-white photography of the legendary Roy DeCarava.Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi
Carnegie Hall season Perspectives artist Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi will perform excerpts from their forthcoming album, They're Calling Me Home, written during the pandemic. The multi-instrumentalists take a deep dive into the musical meaning of home, both physically and metaphorically. The music speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical "call home" of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many throughout the past year.Kinan Azmeh Cityband
Kinan Azmeh Cityband creates spellbinding music by blending classical and jazz with the sounds of Azmeh's Syrian homeland. His dark-hued clarinet will be featured in a special performance of works Azmeh wrote in response to events in Syria, the aftermath of the revolution, and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. The cornerstone of the program will be the world premiere of On Resilience, commissioned by Carnegie Hall-a new piece in which Azmeh incorporates audio testimonies from Syrians after 10 years of war and conflict. The performance, which was recently filmed at The Greene Space at WNYC/WQXR, will be presented alongside a live interview with Mr. Azmeh.Carnegie Hall has partnered with London-based producers Serious to highlight select performances throughout Voices of Hope, amplifying and extending the reach of the festival to its audiences in the United Kingdom and beyond. For more info click on www.serious.org.uk/VoicesOfHope.
DOCUMENTARIES AND FILMED PERFORMANCES
ON
Complementing the diverse array of musical performances on offer, Carnegie Hall will also present a series of 16 documentaries and filmed performances throughout the festival for free on-demand viewing on carnegiehall.org/voicesofhope, available through May 31. Included in the festival line-up are ground-breaking films such as the three-part documentary series Music, War and Revolution (streaming beginning April 21-23 at 3 p.m.) tracing the connections between music, revolution, and war-from the impact of World War I on European composers and the repressive stance on liberty of expression and creative output endured by composers during the Soviet regime, to an exploration of music's ability to both stir political uprising and inspire unity from Germany to Venezuela and the Middle East to Russia. The Singing Revolution (streaming beginning April 27 at 2 p.m.) documents how music became the weapon of choice for Estonians who sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. Between 1987 and 1991, hundreds of thousands gathered in fields to sing forbidden patriotic songs and rally for independence. The story of the American civil rights movement and the powerful music that helped to fuel it comes under the spotlight in Soundtrack for a Revolution (streaming beginning April 29 at 3 p.m.). A unique mix of historical documentary and contemporary musical performance, the film takes a closer look at the freedom songs that protesters sang on picket lines, in mass meetings, in police wagons, and in jail cells as they fought for justice and equality. Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony (streaming beginning April 24 at 4 p.m.) traces the legacy of Beethoven's Ninth and how the message of unity contained in its final movement has been adopted by various groups, often to very different ends, throughout history. The Voices of Hope festival is capped by a broadcast of the legendary performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, conducted by Leonard Bernstein (streaming beginning on April 30 at 8 p.m.) performed on Christmas Day 1989 in Berlin, only a few days after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The joy, emotion, and hope of this powerful and stirring performance is palpable as the final chorus is transformed from an ode to joy to an ode to freedom. Joining members of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus were musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Orchestra of Leningrad's Kirov Theater-symbolizing a coming together of nations and peoples, and a testament to the power of music to unite and inspire hope.MUSIC PLAYLISTS To complement its streamed performances for Voices of Hope, Carnegie Hall has created a special festival music playlist on carnegiehall.org/voicesofhope, inviting further musical exploration. Themed playlists including South Africa Protests, an exploration of the music and performers who used their art to speak out against the injustice of Apartheid; In the Shadow of War, featuring works written in the volatile times before, during, and after World War I; and 20th Century Elegy, a survey of music written in memory of those who faced oppression and conflict during the turbulent century, are also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
HIGHLIGHTS OF VOICES OF HOPE FESTIVAL: PARTNER PROGRAMMING BY GENRE
Voices of Hope festival partner programming features more than 60 events across multiple genres that further explore festival themes, presented by a broad array of cultural and academic institutions from across New York City, ranging from The Africa Center and Centro Primo Levi New York to the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center as well as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York Historical Society, The Metropolitan Opera, and Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, plus several universities. For a full list of 40+ festival partners, please see below.
Click here for a day-by-day "schedule at a glance" of Voices of Hope festival events.Click here for a complete festival event schedule by genre. Online programming will stream via each partner's website or online platform.
Note: Click the date on each event description for additional information on partner websites.Highlights include: MUSIC:
Classical Interludes: Sounds and Stories with Teju Cole
Artist, critic, and photographer Teju Cole curates an event that pairs readings from his story "Radia" with musical works, including several pieces for string quartet performed by members of Orchestra of St. Luke's with violinist Dr. Nicole Cherry. "Radia" is a story about travel, discovery, affliction, and affiliation, set in a melancholy time, but within it is the germ of an as yet unseen future. The program-presented by Brooklyn Public Library-evokes the interlocking themes of sadness and hope and concludes with Cole joining in a live conversation.Grásta: Grace in Uncertainty
Which Star Are You Going to Follow?
Irish Arts Center presents new music compositions as part of Grásta: Grace in Uncertainty, a series of works from artists across a range of disciplines, each responding to the prompt of finding grace in the uncertainty of the current moment. In Which Star Are You Going to Follow?, Appalachian musician Dirk Powell and multi-instrumentalist Mike McGoldrick from the band Lúnasa collaborate on a music and found-sounds piece inspired by journeys taken over multiple generations. The series continues with Walking into the Unknown, featuring Tamar Korn and Dennis Lichtman (Sunday, April 25 at 4 p.m.) followed by Fear, with Kaia Kater-who appeared in Carnegie Hall's Migrations: The Making of America festival in 2019 (Tuesday, April 27 at 4 p.m.). Three compositions from the series will be revisited in the final program (Friday, April 30 at 4 p.m.).Live from Dizzy's Club: Sean Mason Trio
Jazz at Lincoln Center presents the Sean Mason Trio, joined by special guest vocalist Charles Turner, for a performance of Mason's own The Southern Suite, which the North Carolina native describes as "an autobiographical metaphor of the journey from the South to the North-quite literally referring to the Great Migration, but [also] the confrontation of the insular old guards followed by the pursuance of the unknown new."Songbook: Arts and Artists of Tomorrow
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with Arts and Artists of Tomorrow, presents a special Songbook program that features new songs of inspiration by emerging Broadway talent created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating that though Broadway may be dark, creativity continues.Cry, My Heart, Cry: Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2
The placement of song within Holocaust testimonies speaks to music's power, even in the face of oppression, tyranny, and murder. In this program presented by YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, songs give insight into the wartime experiences of the survivors who sing them and offer a glimpse of the multilingual diversity of their experiences. In 2018, D. Zisl Slepovitch began production of an album of songs drawn from testimonies of the Fortunoff Video Archive at Yale University: Where Is Our Homeland? The Archive and Slepovitch are now releasing Cry, My Heart, Cry: Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, Vol. 2, featuring arrangements of 13 additional works.Chico Cabaret
Americas Society presents an evening of songs by Brazilian songwriter Chico Buarque-a master of evading the strict censorship of freedom of expression installed by the nation's military dictatorship in 1968. These powerful songs written in the 1970s, performed on this program by Vanessa Moreno, covertly-and sometimes directly-denounced the injustices of the country's repressive economic and political systems.TALKS AND SPOKEN WORD
Voices of Hope: True Stories of Resilience, Recovery, and Renewal
Friday, April 16 through Friday, April 30 at 6:50 p.m.
Read650 presents individual, five-minute performances of writers reading their own essays of resilience and renewal, showcasing how writers find words in difficult times and their real-life stories bring perspective and surprising insights into the everyday and the extraordinary.Painting the Holocaust
Remembering Alfred Kantor and His Sketchbook
Tuesday, April 20 at 4 p.m.
Center Stage: Exploring Narratives of People Living with HIV in Theater
Tuesday, April 20 at 6:30 p.m.
New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center, in partnership with National Queer Theater, present an evening conversation on HIV narratives in theater. Together with Richard Morales of The Center, playwrights Donja R. Love and Victor I. Cazares will discuss the importance of having characters on stage living with HIV who reflect the lived experiences of BIPOC queer artists also living with HIV.Hidden Meanings and Beyond in Chinese Painting
In this very personal and scholarly talk, Arnold Chang-America's modern master in Chinese painting who established the Chinese painting department at Sotheby's-shares his insights into the meaning and artistry of Chinese painting, from ancient times to today. Presented by the China Institute, the program explores the works of Chinese artists during times of chaos and oppression.Revisiting the Harlem Renaissance
Thursdays, April 22-May 13 at 5:30 p.m.
The Museum of the City of New York presents a four-part series of live, virtual talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Jeffrey C. Stewart. Each session begins with an illustrated presentation by Dr. Stewart that explores a different facet of the Harlem Renaissance, followed by a conversation with a special guest.Ambivalence and Revolution: Dmitri Shostakovich, Vasily Grossman, and Soviet Art Under Stalin
Thursday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m.
The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research presents a talk during which participants will discuss the music of Dmitri Shostakovich and the novels of Vasily Grossman, as well as the conditions in which they were created in Stalinist Russia. The evening explores the art they made-at times officially lauded and other times suppressed-and how to understand the position of the artist in Soviet Russia and why it matters.DANCE AND THEATER
Ephrat Asherie Dance: Odeon
Thursday, April 15 at 8 p.m. available through Wed, April 28
Choreographer Ephrat Asherie teams up with her brother, jazz pianist Ehud Ahserie, for Odeon-a hybrid work presented by The Joyce Theater that layers breaking, hip-hop, house, and vogue as the duo reimagines signature compositions of 20th-century Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, noted for melding classical music with Afro-Brazilian rhythms.The Dead Man
After its Yiddish language world premiere nearly a century ago, this event-presented by the Yiddish Book Center-offers audiences the opportunity to hear Sholem Asch's haunting World War I play as a radio drama in its first-ever complete English translation by Caraid O'Brien. The story takes place in the rubble of a decimated synagogue in Poland directly after the war. Surviving members of the Jewish community gather together to decide how to rebuild their lives. Dealing with dislocation, madness, and death, all they have left is a powerful hope for a prosperous, new future.FILM
No-No Boy: Hold Me Lover, Tell Me Lies
To mark the release of their new Smithsonian Folkways album 1975, No-No Boy presents a short film that illuminates overlooked American histories through songwriter Julian Saporiti's Vietnamese American lens and doctoral studies. "Hold Me Lover, Tell Me Lies" is an innovative pastiche of song, sound, documentary, and archival images that explodes into small moments of humanity. Connections are drawn between the historically marginalized and displaced and groups encountered on the last No-No Boy tours before the shutdown: refugees at the southern border and a small indigenous island village in Alaska.Moving Stories
The inspiring documentary "Moving Stories" follows six diverse dancers from the acclaimed Battery Dance company as they travel the world, working with young people who have experienced war, poverty, sexual violence, and severe trauma as refugees and teaching them the tools of choreography so they can tell their stories through dance.Sneak Preview: Los Hermanos/The Brothers
PatchWorks Films in partnership with the Sphinx Organization presents a sneak preview screening of Los Hermanos/The Brothers, a moving film about violinist Ilmar Gavilán and pianist Aldo López-Gavilán, Cuban-born brothers and virtuoso musicians living on opposite sides of a geopolitical chasm a half-century wide. Tracking their parallel lives, poignant reunion, and momentous first performances together, Los Hermanos/The Brothers offers a nuanced, often startling view of estranged nations through the lens of music and family. Featuring a genre-bending score composed by López-Gavilán that he performs with his brother, the film also includes appearances by Joshua Bell and the Harlem Quartet. The screening will be followed by a live, online Q&A with special guests.EDUCATION / ONLINE COURSES
Hope in the Dark: Artists as Agents for Change
Wednesdays, April 7-28 at 6 p.m.
This four-part course presented by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum explores work made by artists who take on difficult histories in order to be catalysts for change. Each session examines contemporary art from a different geographic region around the world and offers insights into how artists have responded to political and social moments of their time and offer hopeful visions for the future.Voices of Freedom
This education video series-presented by the Louis Armstrong House Museum & Archives-explores the role of art as a vehicle for social change through the lens of Louis Armstrong. Students (high school and up) are invited to create new works while learning about the process and techniques employed by world-class artists.EXHIBITIONS
So Ready for Laughter: Bob Hope and World War II
Friday, April 16 through Sunday, September 5
This special exhibition, which can be seen in-person at the New-York Historical Society, highlights legendary performer Bob Hope and his unique role entertaining troops overseas during World War II. Organized by the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the exhibit features approximately 50 artifacts, including rare and unpublished photographs; relics engraved to Hope; videos of his traveling wartime troupe; and Hollywood Victory Carvan programs and scrapbooks.The Scandal of the Imagination: Aldo Braibanti and Sylvano Bussotti, a Collaboration
Presented by Centro Primo Levi New York, the online exhibition explores poet-philosopher Aldo Braibanti and composer Sylvano Bussotti and the artistic commune they created in Castell'Arquato, Italy that testifies to the resistance encountered by art that breaks boundaries. Born shortly after the end of WWII and 20 years of fascist repression, the commune was soon censored by representatives of the newly formed Italian Republic.Voices of Hope Festival Partners
The Africa Center
Americas Society
Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University
Battery Dance
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Brooklyn Public Library
Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
Centro Primo Levi New York
China Institute
Global Arts Corps
Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies of Ramapo College of New Jersey
Irish Arts Center
Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University
Japan Society
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazzmobile
The Jewish Museum
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The Joyce Theater
Keyes Art Projects
Latin American Writers Institute of Hostos Community College, CUNY
Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
Louis Armstrong House Museum & Archives
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Opera
Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Museum of the City of New York
National Queer Theater
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
New-York Historical Society
Orchestra of St. Luke's
PatchWorks Films
Read650
Serious
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Sphinx Organization
The University of Chicago Presents
WQXR / The Greene Space
Yiddish Book Center
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Click here for a day-by-day "schedule at a glance" of Voices of Hope festival events.
Click here for a complete festival event schedule by genre.
Videos