Baroque Orchestra of NJ and Keys 2 Success Connect Communities

A historic collaboration that crossed borders in age, race, experience, and backgrounds took place at the Madison Community Arts Center in Madison, New Jersey between Keys 2 Success (K2S) and The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey (BONJ) on July 18th, 2021. Over 200 people overflowed the hall, as many stood outside the doors to get a chance to watch the live concert featuring four young pianists from Newark with the Baroque Orchestra performing “Variations on Simple Gifts” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

“Music can bring all [kinds] of people together...there’s something about it; when you sit down and make music together, we’re all united,” expressed Maestro Robert Butts, the executive director of BONJ and organizer of the concert. Maestro Butts should know, as a seasoned conductor, composer, and educator, whose works have been performed around the world, he has enjoyed many unlikely friendships spanning from Asia to Europe.

This particular performance grew out of the serendipitous friendship between Maestro Butts and Elijah Souels, a young Black pianist-composer, born and raised in Newark. The two men first met on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic when Maestro Butts proposed the idea of co-composing “Variations on Simple Gifts” for Keys 2 Success, an organization he has worked with since 2019.
Maestro Butts spoke to the collaborative process between himself and Mr. Souels, saying, “I mainly composed the music for the orchestra while Elijah wrote the music for the K2S students. We worked together to create some variations - probably close to 5 or 6 in total. Elijah, at one point, changed the bass line and that slight change almost made it a whole new piece.” The collaboration between the two musicians brought together two distinct worlds of ideas, and Mr. Souels agreed. “Arranging a piece over Zoom is difficult, and you definitely need to be able to trust the expertise of your partner,” he mentioned.

The collaboration which began with two men quickly grew into more. After completing “Variations on Simple Gifts,” Elijah was commissioned to compose an arrangement of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem. This time, it was up to Elijah to pass on the gift of collaboration. He invited Ms. Saki Uehtehara, a gifted arranger, to co-compose the string part for the piece. Ms. Uehtehara put her expert knowledge of string instruments and her imagination to work to create the orchestration based on Mr. Souels’s original piano arrangement and harmonies. Samvit Singhal, a high-school volunteer with Keys 2 Success was invited to be the editor for the whole piece.

Once again, Mr. Souels turned to his friend, Maestro Butts, to premiere this piece. Saki’s husband, Héctor Falcón, a Juilliard trained violinist, joined in and played the violin 1 part with bravura. Seraphina Taylor, a talented Afro-Latina high-school pianist attending the Academy for Performing Arts in New Jersey and Elijah Soules shared a virtuosic duet piano cadenza.
“Live performances are so different. It was so cathartic to hear the whole orchestra playing along with the pianos. Playing alongside other musicians felt wonderful. I was able to just focus on the beauty of the arrangement and richness of all the sounds blending together,” said Ms. Taylor. Mr. Souels even has a term for it. “Ear candy - a certain combination of harmonies that make your ears want to explode,” he said.

Ms. Jee-Hoon Krska, a Juilliard-trained pianist and founder of K2S, shared her insights about the collaboration. “This is quite the ground-breaking collaboration. You’re seeing musicians of all races and ages - from 10 to 70 - work side by side with each other in friendship and with the utmost respect for one another. Everyone was eager to learn something new from the other. My hope is for this to become the norm - musicians who reflect the diversity of our communities playing together, creating beauty, and forming new friendships.”

The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey was founded in 1996 by Maestro Robert Butts, who has developed it into New Jersey’s leading collaborative ensemble. Maestro Butts was named Artist of the Year by the New York Classical Music Society. His compositions have been performed across Europe and Asia, and have been featured on broadcasts of Performance Today on WQXR. To learn more, visit https://baroqueorchestra.org/

Keys 2 Success brings quality music education to Pre-K to 8th-grade students in the most underserved areas of Newark. With free, daily piano lessons delivered in a group setting in the students' own environment, teachers and volunteers work to remove barriers and support students as they develop into future leaders. To find out more, visit https://www.keysnewark.com/