Goin’ Home: American Roots

Washington (May 17, 2017) Antonin Dvorak—a butcher’s son and instinctive democrat—spent three years in the United States in the late 1890s. The foremost Czech composer of the romantic period discovered “the Negro melodies of America” during his sojourn in New York. And visionary that he was, the composer saw the future of American music would come from the African American and Native American communities. This spring, the DC Youth Orchestra Program (DCYOP) and the Post Classical Ensemble (PCE) are partnering for a concert that will inspire the audience to look with fresh eyes at the influence of African-American music on American Composers. On May 20th at 5pm at the Aldridge Theater at Howard University, the two organizations will present Goin’ Home: American Roots, a free concert featuring world-renowned bass-baritone Kevin Deas and the DC Youth Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Mariano Vales.

Goin’ Home: American Roots is designed as more of a multi-sensory experience engaging the audience on multiple levels rather than as a traditional symphonic concert. By including visuals by Peter Bogdanoff, a narrative by Joe Horowitz, music inspired by African American spirituals and American symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries, this performance will invite the audience to join the journey of ‘goin home’ to an American identity rooted in the traditions of the African American communities of the day. “Not many people know that much of what we think of as “American symphonic music” was inspired by African American traditions and we want to shed light on this,” says Liz Schurgin, Executive Director at DCYOP. “Dvorak believed that African-Americans should be regarded as representative Americans. He prophesized that the future music of America would be black. And he was correct – without black music, there would be no American music – whether ‘popular’ or ‘classical,’” says Joe Horowitz, PostClassical Ensemble’s Executive Director, describing the program.

DC Youth Orchestra Program (DCYOP) has been an integral part of the Washington community since 1960, fostering the musical development of more than 50,000 youth. The first youth orchestra to perform at the Kennedy Center, DCYOP has toured 22 countries, played for US presidents and diplomats, and worked with esteemed musicians like Copland, Maazel, Rostropovich, and most recently, Gustavo Dudamel and Yo-Yo Ma. The program has received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award and the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Arts Education. DCYOP provides group lessons and ensemble opportunities to youth ages 4-18. DCYOP is proud to be an inclusive program and welcomes all students with a desire to learn, regardless of background, socioeconomic status or ability. Our 600 students represent 200 different schools and 100 unique zip codes. For more information visit www.dcyop.org.

PostClassical Ensemble -- called “one of the country’s most innovative music groups” (Philip Kennicott) and “wildly ambitious” (Anne Midgette) -- was founded in 2003 by Angel Gil-Ordóñez and Joseph Horowitz as an experimental orchestral laboratory PCE programming is thematic and cross-disciplinary, typically incorporating dance, art, film, or theater. PCE’s educational programing, with Kevin Deas, interfaces with high schools in DC and Howard County. PCE’s best-selling Naxos DVDs of The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936), The River (1938), and The City (1939) feature fresh recordings of the classic Virgil Thomson and Aaron Copland soundtracks. A third PCE Naxos DVD, released last Spring, is Redes (1935), with a score by Silvestre Revueltas – a peak achievement in the history of music and the moving image (“It is like experiencing a masterpiece of painting cleaned of centuries of grime – Antonio Munoz Molina in El Pais [Madrid]. Beginning this month, PCE concerts and recordings are regularly heard (and archived) on the WWFM Classical Network. Next season, PCE will present concerts at the Washington National Cathedral, including Kevin Deas in “Deep River: The Art of the Spiritual” (February 8). www.postclassical.com

Kevin Deas is Resident Artist of PostClassical Ensemble. With PCE he has premiered and recorded a “Hiawatha Melodrama” combining music by Dvorak with excerpts from Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha; the premiere recording, on Naxos, was named one of the best CDs of the year by Minnesota Public Radio. He most recently appeared with PCE in “The Trumpet Shall Sound,” a program of spirituals and religious arias at the National Cathedral.” He next appears with PCE in “Deep River: The Art of the Spiritual” at the National Cathedral next February 8. Deas regularly visits schools and universities as a PCE artist, most frequently in performances of a “Harry Burleigh Show” partnered by PCE Executive Director Joseph Horowitz. He regularly appears with such orchestras as the Baltimore Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra -- both as a leading exponent of Gershwin’s Porgy, and a frequent soloist in concert works by Bach, Handel, and Beethoven. For more than a decade, he has collaborated with Joseph Horowitz in “Dvorak and America” concerts and festivals (many supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities) presented by the Buffalo Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Brevard Music Festival, and other orchestras and summer festivals.