Celebrating Black Artistry Through Music
Celebrating Black Artistry Through Music
upcoming
Roots
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Roots explores the origins of inspiration, the anchors from where creativity is born. Castle of our Skins teams up with critically-acclaimed pianist Kyle P. Walker to explore this concept highlighting music from the African diaspora. Color, memory, history, and culture serve as the thread that binds this program featuring a breadth of fresh voices rooted in folk, jazz, classical and contemporary. Including solo and chamber music works by Hannah Kendall, David Baker, Trevor Weston, Shelley Washington and Brian Raphael Nabors.
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the flea and the fly - edutainment series
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"The Flea and the Fly" is a 30-minute, fun-filled, music + storytime experience for youth 4-8 years of age. Using music by Black women composers, including Maible Bailey, Florence Price, and Margaret Bonds, this original storybook tale written by Ashleigh Gordon teaches friendship and belonging in a way that both children and parents can enjoy.
Saturday, May 11, 2024, 12:30-12:50pm & 1:00-1:20pm Roxbury branch of the Boston Public Library (149 Dudley St, Roxbury) | FREE! RSVP |
African Tales
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African Tales brings together the unique musical and personal stories of composers Bongani Ndondana-Breen, Undine Smith Moore, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Ndodana-Breen's "Safika: Three Tales of African Migration" depicts Black South Africans’ dispossession, migration, and translocation. Moore's "Soweto" calls to mind the horrors of South African apartheid. And through Coleridge-Taylor's piano quintet, we can engage with a personal tale of African roots and Pan-African ideals.
Thursday, May 23, 2024, 7:45pm @ Howard Assembly Room Leeds, United Kingdom | Purchase Tickets
Sunday, May 26, 2024, 7:30pm @ Turner Sims, Southampton, United Kingdom | Purchase Tickets |
#BCMC 4.0
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For our 4th Black Composer Miniature Challenge, we put out a call for composers who identify as Black and part of the African diaspora to compose 30 to 60-second piece for solo saxophone, inspired by Indigenous themes, stories, and symbols curated by our 2023-2024 Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence Jenny Oliver. Works that met the challenge will be choreographed and danced by Jenny and receive a video world premiere in our annual BCMC digital festival in June 2024!
Stay tuned for more details!
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portraits of spirituals - edutainment series
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Castle of our Skins presents a series of interactive, intergenerational, educational programs designed for youth and families. All programs highlight Black history, culture, music, and arts in our signature mix of education and entertainment.
Saturday, June 15, 2024, 12:30-1:30pm at the Roxbury branch of the Boston Public Library (149 Dudley St, Roxbury) | FREE! RSVP |
A Juneteenth Celebration
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Celebrating Juneteenth, Landmarks Orchestra, in collaboration with Castle of Our Skins, starts the 2024 summer season with a performance at the Kroc Center!
Featuring works from Florence Price, William Grant Still, Jessie Montgomery and more, this concert will be a celebration of the life and artistry of iconic Black composers. Saturday, June 15, 2024, 4:00pm at Kroc Community Center (650 Dudley St, Roxbury) | FREE! RSVP |
latest happenings
Belonging
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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, 2023-2024 Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence Jenny Oliver's work has centered on the questions of "What does it mean to belong to a person, to a place, to yourself?" During this time, artists - more broadly - have also been moving through various stages of creativity and tectonic shifts as they interpret their connection to the topic.
Join us at 3:00PM for participatory, artist curated workshops designed to deepen one’s connection to self, followed at 4:00PM by an immersive mix of music, dance, and spoken word performances. Light refreshments will be provided.
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As I Heard When I was Young
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As I heard when I was young features chamber music with African roots and Pan African ideals. Featuring works by South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen, Ugandan composer Justinian Tamasuza, Haitian composer John Karly Fils Menard and American composers Derrick Skye & Brian Raphael Nabors, this program centers concepts of unity, solidarity, and connections across the African diaspora.
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Embodyment
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Castle of our Skins' third annual BSU Intercollegiate Fellowship welcomes musicians from Black Student Unions at select Boston-area conservatories to collaborate and create, presenting opportunities to build a network of peers beyond institutional affiliation; a network informed by identity, experience, and aspiration.
To conclude the fellowship, students will co-curate and present a final concert around the theme of EmBODYment featuring works by African diasporic composers. Sunday, February 4, 2024, 7:00PM @ Boston Center for the Arts |
FREE RSVP |
BLACK to the Future: an Afrofuturist soiree
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Immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of Afrofuturistic ideals as we come together to envision a future where we thrive! Join us for Black to the Future: An Afrofuturist Soiree!
Friday, February 23, 2024, 7:00PM @ Black Market (2136 Washington St. Roxbury, MA)
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LIFE. LOVE. LEGACY. CORETTA SCOTT KING TRIBUTE CONCERT
Image Credit: "Pearlessence" - Ekua Holmes, copyright 2023
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This 7th Annual concert, presented by NEC’s Black Student Union and co-curated with Castle of our Skins, honors one of the most notable graduates of New England Conservatory, the trailblazing activist and soprano Coretta Scott King.
Coretta Scott King’s unwavering commitment to peace, dedication to family, and incredible sense of purpose are remarkable, but amidst these hallmarks is an incredible artist. With a life dedicated to the Civil Rights cause, she used the power of music as a vehicle for social change. Don't miss this free musical tribute presented at NEC's Jordan Hall, marking the 70th anniversary of her graduation from NEC, where she studied music education and voice. Monday, February 26, 2024, 7:30pm @ New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall | FREE RSVP |
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reclaiming lost sound - Instrument building
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Join us for a FREE, indigenous instrument building workshop with South African composer and researcher Monthati Masebe. For musicians, composers, historians, ethnomusicologists, students and those curious.
Saturday, March 2, 2024, 12:00-5:00pm @Goethe Institut (170 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02116) FREE! REGISTER |
play song & games - edutainment series
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The songs and games we played as children helped us learn cultural stories and understood the rhythms and textures of our world. Join in play as we remember, celebrate, learn, and relearn Afro-American and Caribbean play songs and games! Family-friendly/youth ages 12 and under.
Saturday, March 9, 2024, 12:30-1:00pm & 1:00-1:30pm @ Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library (149 Dudley St, Roxbury) FREE! RSVP |
voices of black madonna - edutainment series
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Voices of Black Madonna celebrates three legendary singers who raised their voices for liberation: Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price and Mahalia Jackson. Geared towards families and young audiences (ages 12 and under), Voices of Black Madonna will highlight the power, voices, and importance of these women through performance, storytelling and audience engagement.
Saturday, March 16, 2024, 12:30-1:30pm @ Roxbury branch of the Boston Public Library | FREE! RSVP |
FROM SUFFRAGE TO SELMA: CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN'S FIGHT FOR EQUALITY
In celebration of Women's History Month, join us at Simmons University for a special fundraiser event for our friends at the League of Women for Community Service. Hear stories of three generations of Black women connected to LWCS who paved the way for civil rights through music & oration.
Sunday, March 17, 2024, 3:00-4:30pm @ Simmons University Linda K. Paresky Conference Center (300 The Fenway, Boston) | FREE! Suggested Donation $25 |
OPERA NIGHT AT BPL : The Music of Julia Perry
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Visionary Black composer Julia Perry (1924-1979) was a revolutionary artist whose groundbreaking operas, symphonies, and choral works innovatively combined musical idioms of the African diaspora with 20th century European techniques.
On the anniversary of her 100th birthday, join Castle of Our Skins Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Ashleigh Gordon, in a dynamic discussion with conductor and composer Dr. Julius P. Williams (Berklee College of Music), around Perry's fascinating life and work. The evening will also include riveting performances of Perry’s music by Boston Lyric Opera artists, as well as an audience Q&A.
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Love & Justice
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Ensemble-in-Residence Castle of our Skins returns to the Longy School of Music of Bard College for an immersive three-day residency focused on the music of Adolphus Hailstork. Our fifth residency, we are excited to team up with Hailstork to work with students in master classes, classroom visits, and affinity spaces, and present a capstone portrait concert featuring chamber music from Hailstork’s rich body of work.
Including a pre-concert talk from 7:00-7:45pm and post-concert reception.
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Love & Justice
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Castle of our Skins returns to the Brattleboro Music Center for a day-long celebration of composer Adolphus Hailstork complete with masterclasses, discussions, and a capstone portrait concert featuring chamber music from Hailstork's rich body of work.
Saturday, March 30, 2024, 7:00pm @ Brattleboro Music Center, Brattleboro, VT | PURCHASE TICKETS
Including a pre-concert talk from 6:15-6:45pm. |
The Wanderer's Tethering
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The Wanderer’s Tethering is a celebration of Black folk songs, Black women in America, and the layered and multifaceted experience of people belonging to the Black diaspora. The program features a Boston Lyric Opera commissioned work, "The Wanderer’s Tethering," which combines poetry by Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola and music by composer, vocalist, and multimedia artist Mason Bynes; alongside additional selections including Trevor Weston’s “Juba,” Jessie Montgomery’s “Source Code,” and Florence Price’s settings of familiar Negro folk songs for string quartet. Together, they provide a rich tapestry linking the voices of Black creators from the past with those of the present.
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Florence Price Birthday Celebration Concert
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Join us for a collaborative concert of instrumental and vocal music by groundbreaking composer Florence Price on the occasion of her birthday, and improvisation on themes of Price. The concert will feature performances by faculty from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music, as well as guest artists from chamber ensemble Castle of Our Skins.
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