Classical music has seen a recent surge of interest in performing works composed by Black women. The composers whose work has received the most attention in recent years (e.g., Margaret Bonds and Florence Price) compose music that often features Black folk and vernacular idioms: their most performed works are those that illustrate this trait. By contrast, composers Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry composed music in a more modernist and even austere style and rarely cited Black vernacular material. Conductor Kedrick Armstrong will discuss how people today make choices about what music to perform, and how those choices combine knowledge of the past with preoccupations of the present day. Why have audiences and arts organizations gravitated towards the work of Bonds and Price, but given less attention to composers like Smith and Perry? In this presentation, Maestro Armstrong will introduce sonic and stylistic features of Smith’s and Perry’s music, driving the conversation to our 21st-century values: in an era preoccupied with identity, are we overlooking important music that does not carry obvious identity markers?

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"The Music of Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry" with Kedrick Armstrong

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

In this operatic adaptation of Henry James’ 1898 spine-tingling book, a young governess is hired to care for Miles and Flora, two orphaned children with a strange upbringing. When she arrives at the remote English estate, the governess is met with the mysterious presence of two ghosts whom she believes are influencing the children. As the lines blur between reality and the supernatural, she embarks on a mission to protect them from these sinister forces that ultimately end in tragedy.  Enter the world of Bly Manor…if you dare!

Family Ghosts: The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten

Moss Arts Center

Jefferson Center

Departmental Recitals showcase performance departments through its students. Featuring various students and repertoire, and curated by the faculty, performances in this recital highlight SFCM programs and the wide range of study. 

Morgan Wolfe

Events

Past events

Oct 14, 2024

"The Music of Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry" with Kedrick Armstrong · San Francisco Conservatory of Music

20 - 22 Sep, 2024

Family Ghosts: The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten · Opera Roanoke

About

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