AUREA ENSEMBLE PRESENTS a Concert Celebrating The Ideals Of Democracy And Equality

What happens when artists meet at the margins of their disciplines and push the boundaries back and forth? What happens is AUREA-a performance ensemble engaged in a joyous pursuit to investigate and invigorate the harmony of music and the spoken word.

Aurea Ensemble, one of New England's most original and extraordinary chamber ensembles, presents its second concert of the season, I HEAR AMERICA SINGING on Saturday, September 24, 8:00pm, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 50 Park Place, Pawtucket, RI. This concert will feature Aurea's signature programming, which immerses audiences in poetry and prose, unique harmonica improvisations and chamber music.

I HEAR AMERICA SINGING celebrates the ever-unfolding ideals of Democracy and simultaneously pays homage to Walt Whitman's 2019 bicentennial and the 2020 centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. In addition to selected passages from Whitman's groundbreaking poetry and prose, this performance includes words of Langston Hughes, interspersed with music of Dvorak, Amy Beach, Aaron Copland, George Walker, Charles Ives, Florence Price, and a recent chamber opera by the contemporary composer Francine Trester.

The first half of the program draws from Whitman's Leaves of Grass and other writings that reflect his eclectic musical sensibility and vision for American democracy in the face of the Civil War. The second half expands on Whitman's aesthetic and democratic vision and also illuminates Florence Price's life and music (1888-1953), featuring some of her music for string quartet. Price was America's first black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra and was the inspiration for Boston-based composer, Francine Trester, whose twenty-minute chamber opera, Florence Comes Home, will also be performed. The piece, based on researched archives and the 2007 discovery of some of Price's lost musical manuscripts and letters, received high acclaim at its Boston premiere in the fall of 2019 and Rhode Island premiere by Aurea in 2020.

Consuelo Sherba, Aurea's artistic director said, "We have much to gain from listening to the magnanimous fervor of Whitman with fresh and critical ears. In light of Whitman's recent bicentennial, his expansive vision and impact on American culture, we are also keenly aware of how much more encompassing that vision can be." She continued, "The revelations of a newly discovered body of fine work by the early 20th century African American composer, Florence Price, have a particular poignancy in light of the 2020 centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. Following the inspirational arc of the program, it is very gratifying to conclude with contemporary Boston composer, Francine Trester's operatic homage to Price."

About the Aurea Ensemble

Based in Rhode Island and founded more than 15-years ago, this eclectic chamber ensemble explores the relationship between music and the spoken word. The group takes its name from Catena Aurea Homeri, or the Golden Chain of Homer, a symbol of 18th century esoteric alchemy-the combining of disparate elements into a divine new element. This is the very definition of every Aurea event: a new kind of artistic experience is created out of the group's strong framework of classical, folk and contemporary music performed together with eloquent poetry, journals and prose.

Performers:

Brianna Robinson, soprano
Carrie Cheron, mezzo-soprano
RaShaun Campbell, baritone
Alexey Shabalin, violin
Anna Williams, violin
Consuelo Sherba, viola
Emmanuel Feldman, cello
Chris Turner, harmonica/reader
Nigel Gore, reader

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