Upcoming Performances Announced For Conductor André Raphel

Conductor André Raphel appears at music festivals in Summer 2022 and makes important debuts with orchestras during the 2022/23 season. His appearances as guest conductor will include the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas, leading three concerts on June 17, 22 and 25, 2022; his Boston Symphony Orchestra subscription series debut in March 2023; and conducting the Minnesota Orchestra in its 2023 Juneteenth Celebration.

On June 17, 22 and 25, 2022, André Raphel will be the featured conductor at the Sunflower Music Festival. This summer series of free concerts has been taking place for three decades and this year's series is titled "The Sunflower Music Festival and the African American Experience 2022." The 2022 Festival honors past and contemporary African American composers, performers , soloists and is a collaboration with the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site. Topeka is the home of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954 declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. This summer's programming was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant for Arts Project Award to help support this year's Festival. These concerts represent a return engagement for André Raphel .

André Raphel conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra making his BSO Subscription series debut on March 3, 4 and 5, 2023. He will be leading the opening program in the "Voices of Loss, Reckoning and Hope" Festival, a series exploring complex social issues. The program includes Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Petite Suite de Concert from 1911; William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony; and the program's centerpiece work, Uri Caine's gospel and popular-based The Passion of Octavius Catto, with the Uri Caine Trio (Uri Caine, piano; Mike Boone, bass & Clarence Penn, drums), vocalist Barbara Walker, Tanglewood Festiival Chorus, and the Catto Chorus.

Uri Caine's The Passion of Octavius Catto, is an oratorio about the Reconstruction-era civil rights leader, Octavius Catto, who was murdered in Philadelphia in 1871. The enthralling work combines classical, gospel, jazz and pop styles. A recording of The Passion of Octavius Catto conducted by André Raphel , with the Uri Caine Trio, Barbara Walker and the Catto Chorus was released on August 30, 2019 on 816Music. Maestro Raphel states, "The Passion of Octavius Catto is a piece of music unlike anything I have ever conducted given its historical significance. Uri's work fuses together different musical styles and does it in the framework of telling Catto's story. Catto wasn't just an important figure in Philadelphia history; he was a forgotten figure in U.S. history." The work was commissioned by the Mann Music Center and the Pew Center for the Arts. It had its world premiere under the baton of André Raphel leading the Philadelphia Orchestra with the Uri Caine Trio and vocalist Barbara Walker at the Mann Center in 2014.

Tickets will be available on August 8, 2022. For information go to the Boston Symphony Orchestra website at www.bso.org.

This program was originally scheduled for March 2020 and cancelled due to Covid-19.

André Raphel conducts the Minnesota Orchestra in two Juneteenth programs taking place on Friday, June 23 and Saturday, June 24, 2023. The Friday, June 23 concert will be part of the Minnesota Orchestra's Livestream offerings as well as a live local television broadcast on the Twin Cities PBS station, a local radio broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio and the Minnesota Orchestra's digital platforms. Juneteenth: Celebration of Freedom marks the first presentation of a Juneteenth program by the Minnesota Orchestra. For further information go to www.minnesotaorchestra.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.