2021-2022 season

Click HERE for COVID-19 Updates Affecting In-Person Events

Click HERE to Read and Download Our Season Press Release

upcoming

What is black creativity?

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 Over the past five months, students from the Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Boston Conservatory at Berklee's Black Student Unions gathered for fellowship, mentorship, learning, and creation.
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What Is Black Creativity? is a co-curated concert experience that seeks to answer just that by showcasing the breadth, depth, and ever expansive world of Black artistry.

RSVP (it's FREE) HERE  |  Learn more about the fellowship HERE
Co-Sponsored by Boston Center for the Arts where Castle of our Skins is a Launchpad Resident.

Thresh & hold

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Movement of family and broken family. Those who migrated and those who stayed. What does the land remember and hear? Movement of personal healing and reflection in order to return ‘home’ to self and family.

Join Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence poet Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul for an evening-length, multimedia experience centered around their new book of poetry Thresh & Hold.

March 13, 2022 4:00pm @ The Boston Center for the Arts
Co-Sponsored by Boston Center for the Arts where Castle of our Skins is a Launchpad Resident. Supported, in part, from the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through a CIP Project grant.

home

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Home explores home as a concept deeply based in past memory and present circumstances, one’s physical environment, the feeling of familiarity, and sense of culture. Curated and featuring flutist and composer Nathalie Joachim, Home features the works of Allison Loggins-Hull, Pamela Z, Nathalie Joachim, Valerie Coleman, Jessie Montgomery and Tania Léon.

April 10, 2022, 1:30pm @ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

for black people

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Featuring the world premiere of Daniel Bernard Roumain's Music for Black People written for flute, voice, piano and cello ​as part of Celebrity Series of Boston's Solo(s) Together project.

RSVP: April 23, 2022, 3:00pm @ Arlington Street Church
RSVP: May 19, 2022, 7:30pm: Virtual Livestream

University of Oxford Residency

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Lectures, performances and recording projects with musicologist-pianist Dr. Samantha Ege as part of COOS' TORCH Visiting Fellow at Oxford University.

May 2-10, 2022, various times @ Oxford University, England
This event is part of the Humanities Cultural Programme.

remembrance

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Lecture-performance with musicologist-pianist Dr. Samantha Ege, featuring works for strings and piano by Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore, Margaret Bonds and Frederick Tillis.

May 18, 2022, Lecture/concert times and venue TBA

2021-2022 ​SHIRLEY GRAHAM DU BOIS CREATIVE IN RESIDENCE

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The Shirley Graham Du Bois Creative in Residency program is generously funded by donors Arlene and Larry Dunn and invites creative artists to collaborate in various ways with COOS throughout the season.

​Meet our 2021-2022 Creative in Residence: Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul

Celebrating Black Artistry Through Music

Recent happenings

Love and Justice

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Featuring the debut performance of Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence, poet Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul, this virtual performance includes original poetry and songs for soprano and piano with music by Margaret Bonds, Undine Smith Moore, R. L. Owens, and Adolphus Hailstork's MLK-inspired art song "Songs of Love and Justice." Musicians include pianist Julia Scott Carey and soprano Brianna J. Robinson.

July 27, 2021 @7:30pm: Watch HERE
As part of the Apple Hill Chamber Music Virtual Summer Concert Series.

#BCMC 2.0

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Composers who identify as Black and part of the African diaspora are challenged to compose pieces for flute and harp! 

Each piece must be approx. 30 seconds or less and scored for solo flute (piccolo, C, and alto), solo harp, or flute & harp duo.

Questions? Please email anthony@castleskins.org.

The August 1, 2021 by 11:59PM deadline has passed.
​For MORE INFO, please visit our BIBA Blog

misodzi yamarimba

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In collaboration with the Boston Lyric Opera, we are excited to co-present the world premiere performance of an original musical narrative by Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa-Nzou Mambano: Misozdi YaMarimba, the story of how the mbira came to be.

August 28, 2021, 4:00pm: DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
RSVP HERE: FREE for member adults and children; $18 for non-members

#BPMC 

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Poets who identify as Black and part of the African diaspora are challenged to write a haiku or a tanka! All ages are encouraged to participate, and each poet will receive a $75 honorarium (via PayPal or check). Your poem can be submitted as written text, recorded voice, or a video recording of you reading the poem.

Poems are due August 31, 2021 by 11:59PM
​For MORE INFO, please visit our BIBA Blog

 be still and know 

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Lectures and a concert hosted by the University of Baltimore featuring works for piano quartet and subsets by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Jeffrey Mumford, Carlos Simon, Adolphus Hailstork and Brian Raphael Nabors.

October 12, 2021, 7:00pm: An Die Musik, Baltimore & Livestream
FREE! RSVP HERE

safika: dr. bongani ndodana-breen portrait concert

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Castle of our Skins is excited to be back in residence at the Longy School of Music of Bard College! As part of our third annual residency, we will feature an immersive three-day residency focused on the music of Dr. Bongani Ndodana-Breen complete with lectures, master classes, open rehearsals and concerts culminating in our portrait concert: Safika.
Castle of our Skins is an Ensemble in Residence at the Longy School of Music at Bard College.

Miniature festival

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Featuring world premiere 30 second miniatures for flute and harp submitted as part of our Black Composer Miniature 2.0 Challenge, PLUS haikus and tanka poems submitted as part of our Black Poet Miniature Challenge, PLUS performances by Project STEP, Boston City-Wide String Orchestra, and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras' Intensive Community Program students of viola works from our inaugural Black Composer Miniature Challenge!

​September - December 2021: On Facebook, YouTube & Instagram 

sound & appliqué

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Featuring world premiere compositions inspired by African American quilting traditions by Elizabeth Brown and Lauren McCall, plus Florence B. Price's Five Folksongs in Counterpoint for string quartet. New quilts and poetry commissions by quilters L'Merchie Frazier and Alpha M. Bruton and Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence poet Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul.

January 22, 2022 (PURCHASE TIX)
    1:00pm Pre-concert lecture (virtual)
    7:00pm Performance
​Brattleboro Music Center, VT

sound & appliqué

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A concert film version of Sound & Appliqué, which will be filmed at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, will be released later this season and include spoken word, narration, music, and poetic imagery stitched together. A perfect way for you to enjoy this experience from the comfort of your own home!
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Castle of our Skins is an Ensemble in Residence at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Previous Concert & Education Series:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
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Black concert series and educational programs in Boston and beyond