The March to Liberation

Still’s Symphony No. 2, Song of a New Race, celebrates the Black American as, in the composer’s words, “a totally new individual.” Adolphus Hailstork’s oratorio Done Made My Vow, A Ceremony, conceived here for the stage by director Tazewell Thompson and video artist Rasean Davonté Johnson, honors the countless Black Americans who have faced “the bench of injustice, and, by doing so, changed a nation.” A World Premiere by Courtney Bryan, with a new libretto by Thompson, celebrates a variety of Black musical heritage. Leslie B. Dunner conducts.