Composer

Activist. Orator. Husband. Leader. One of the most misunderstood figures in US history, Malcolm X was an icon of the civil rights movement. Get to know the man through a series of biographical vignettes that follow Malcolm X from his interrupted childhood in Lansing, Michigan to his tragic murder in Harlem. With a score by Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Anthony Davis (Central Park Five) that fuses elements of modernism, minimalism, and jazz, X produces a sound world that is unmistakably individual.

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X: The Life & Times of Malcolm X

Seattle Center

X: the Life & Times of Malcolm X

Learn how Malcolm X, a monumental figure of the civil rights movement, inspired the Davis family team of creators to adapt his story for the opera stage. Moderated by our scholar-in-residence Dr. Naomi André, this talk will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis, librettist Thulani Davis, and story writer Christopher Davis as they discuss the genesis of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and reflect on the continued significance of this work nearly four decades after its premiere.

Opera Talk: The Making Of X

Seattle Opera

Truth to Power

Paramount Theatre

Here and Now Series: Dana Brayton, Lei Liang, Ravel, Kareem Roustom, Arson Fahim, Paul Desenne, Anthony Davis, Betty Olivero, Niloufar Nourbakhsh / Donald Berman

Bargemusic

Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play Robert O’Hara oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an Everyman whose story transcends time and space. An exceptional cast of breakout artists and young Met stars enliven the operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, sings Malcolm X, alongside soprano Leah Hawkins as his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.

X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

Lincoln Center

A Far Cry

Central Park

AMFS artist-faculty, all top musicians from renowned orchestras, opera companies, and conservatories, come together to play their favorite chamber music works. Always a joyful and creative 75 minutes of music-making.

Chamber Music

Aspen Meadows Resort

These lunchtime discussions feature prominent performers, composers, and musicologists in lively discussions with AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher.

Free general admission tickets will be available starting at 12 pm MT the Friday before each High Notes event. If an event is not noted as sold out online, patrons may walk up in person for any last-minute availability.

High Notes

Hotel Jerome

For this season’s final "What I Hear" event, American composer Anthony Davis curates a program of chamber music in connection with the BSO's performance of his You Have the Right to Remain Silent later that evening. New England Conservatory musicians perform a program including his works Middle Passage, Still Waters III, and the aria “They Wanted a Girl” from his opera Amistad, along with Alvin Singleton’s Be Natural, for strings. BSO Artistic Administrator Eric Valliere moderates a conversation with the composer.

"What I Hear" - Anthony Davis

New England Conservatory

Back by popular demand and increasing societal relevance, THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE will return to Long Beach Opera in a brand new production directed by Juilliard-trained actor / director and star of Apple TV’s “The Morning Show” Desean Terry and conucted by Anthony Parnther. The harrowing account of five teenagers wrongfully convicted, incarcerated and eventually exonerated remains a devastatingly relevant indictment on racial injustices in America. LBO’s 2019 world premiere of the opera brought composer and “national treasure” (Opera News) Anthony Davis additional recognition when the score was selected for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music. “Davis’ supercharged score grippingly conveys the claustrophobia of a racist legal system and society from which there was, for these five innocent boys and their families, no exit.” (Los Angeles Times).

After the critical acclaim of the world premiere and the collective awakening of the Black Lives Matter movement, LBO brings back this important, lauded work in a brand new production, featuring many of the original cast members along with some new additions. Terry’s new production of THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE will reinvigorate the story of five innocent Black teenagers trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare of the American criminal justice system.

The Central Park Five

Jordan High School

Three portraits of America. Missy Mazzoli creates a solar system of sound, and John Adams pulls out the stops in his virtuosic orchestral showcase. Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill is the soloist in Anthony Davis’s autobiographical depiction of an unequal encounter with the police. Dalia Stasevska — the rising star who conducted the 2018 Nobel Prize Ceremony — leads the program.

Anthony Davis

Composer

Events

Feb 24 - Mar 9, 2024

X: The Life & Times of Malcolm X · Seattle Opera

Feb 24 - Mar 9, 2024

X: the Life & Times of Malcolm X · McCaw Hall

Feb 23, 2024

Opera Talk: The Making Of X · Seattle Opera

Nov 10, 2023

Truth to Power · Oakland Symphony

Nov 5, 2023

Here and Now Series: Dana Brayton, Lei Liang, Ravel, Kareem Roustom, Arson Fahim, Paul Desenne, Anthony Davis, Betty Olivero, Niloufar Nourbakhsh / Donald Berman · Bargemusic

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