Fort Worth Opera to Present Karen Slack And Michelle Cann In OF THEE I SING! SONGS OF LOVE AND JUSTICE

On Sunday, November 13 at 2:00pm CT, Fort Worth Opera will present soprano Karen Slack in her critically-acclaimed recital, Of Thee I Sing! Songs of Love & Justice, with pianist Michelle Cann at Texas Christian University's Van Cliburn Performance Hall.

Curated by Slack in the summer of 2020, during the height of the pandemic and just after the murder of George Floyd, this deeply moving program was built around Langston Hughes' raw and powerful, yet hopeful 1938 poem, The Kids Who Die. Musical works include Scott Gendel's Kids Who Die, written for Slack in 2017, alongside songs by fellow American composers H.T Burleigh, Clayton White, Undine Smith Moore, H. Leslie Adams, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adolphus Hailstork and Jake Heggie. This impactful recital features songs around the themes of love and justice as a reminder that no matter race, ethnicity, or politics, we are all human.

Program Details
Fort Worth Opera Presents Of Thee I Sing! Songs of Love and Justice
Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 2:00pm CT
Van Cliburn Hall at TCU | 2900 W Lowden St | Fort Worth, TX
Tickets: $20-50
Link: www.fwopera.org/oftheeising

Program:
Clayton White - Over My Head
Undine Smith Moore - Love Let the Wind Cry... How I Adore Thee
Undine Smith Moore - I Want to Die While You Love Me
H.T. Burleigh - Lovely Dark and Lowly One
Ricky Ian Gordon - My People
Scott Gendel - Kids Who Die
H. Leslie Adams - Prayer
Jake Heggie - "Eleanor Roosevelt: Marian Anderson's Mink Coat" from Iconic Legacies: First Ladies of the Smithsonian
Adolphus Hailstork (Text by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) - Songs from Love and Justice
i. Decisions
ii. Love

About Karen Slack

Hailed as possessing a voice of extraordinary beauty, celebrated American soprano Karen Slack is a recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, Co-Chair of the Women's Opera Network with Opera America, and serves on the board of the American Composer's Orchestra. In January 2022, Slack was appointed Creative Partner with Brooklyn's National Sawdust.

Highlights of Slack's season include her debut at The Dallas Opera; recitals with the Miró and Pacifica Quartets, pianist Michelle Cann, and organist Alan Morrison; the premiere of Songs in Flight at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Kimmel Center; world premieres with the Nashville Symphony and Oklahoma City Philharmonic; at Carnegie Hall with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; Beethoven with the Fresno Philharmonic; and productions at Dallas Opera, Portland Opera, and Edmonton Opera.

Slack has appeared with The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Scottish Opera among many others. Her debut with Opera Theatre of St. Louis originated the role of Billie in the world premiere of Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Slack has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and abroad with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

She made her film debut as the Opera Diva in Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Slack drew on her experience in film to expand her artistic platform through premiere digital performances with Houston Grand Opera, Madison Opera, and Minnesota Opera, urbanarias, and launched her acclaimed talk show, #kikikonversations.

The native Philadelphian is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Adler Fellowship and Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera. For more information, please visit www.sopranokarenslack.com

About Michelle Cann

"A compelling, sparkling virtuoso" (Boston Music Intelligencer), pianist Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age fourteen and has since performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

A champion of the music of Florence Price, Ms. Cann performed the New York City premiere of the composer's Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra in February 2021, which the Philadelphia Inquirer called "exquisite."

Highlights of her 2021-22 season include debut performances with the Atlanta, Detroit, and St. Louis symphony orchestras, as well as her Canadian concert debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. She also receives the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, and the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Embracing a dual role as both performer and pedagogue, her season includes teaching residencies at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association.

Cann regularly appears in solo and chamber recitals throughout the U.S., China, and South Korea. Notable venues include the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), and the Barbican (London). She has also appeared as cohost and collaborative pianist with NPR's From The Top.

An award winner at top international competitions, in 2019 she served as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's MAC Music Innovator in recognition of her role as an African-American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation, and a commitment to education and community engagement.

Ms. Cann studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she holds the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies. Learn more at www.michellecann.com.

*Photo Credit: Kia Caldwell

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