2022-2023 season
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Celebrating Black Artistry Through Music
latest happenings
Massq Ball 2022 origin - the massq ball
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The MassQ Ball will feature the diverse artistic expressions of and for Boston’s communities of color. A space for connection and healing, this intergenerational, cross-cultural exhibition of the arts asks the question “If we, together, could author our own creation story, what would we create?
MassQ Ball 2022: Origin is co-produced by Castle of our Skins, visual artist Daniel Callahan of Create & Record, and the Arnold Arboretum. A series of lectures, panels, and interactive experiences designed to deepen our collective understanding, MassQ Ball 2022: Origin will culminate in a final, large-scale celebration called MassQ Ball that will take place on July 9, 2022, at the Arboretum. July 9, 2022, 2:00-7:00pm @ The Arnold Arboretum Learn more about MassQ Ball 2022: Origin at MassQBall.com 
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For black people
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Featuring the world premiere of Daniel Bernard Roumain's Music for Black People as part of Celebrity Series of Boston's Solo(s) Together project. Rescheduled due to COVID-19. FREE!
September 10, 2022, 3:00pm @ Arlington Street Church September 22, 2022, 4:00pm Digital Premiere
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Walker at 100
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In collaboration with violinist and composer Gregory Walker, Castle of our Skins is honored to present lectures, master classes and performances centering Black artistry and the life and works of Pulitzer-Prize winning composer George Walker.
October 3, 2022, 2:30pm @ Boston University College of Fine Arts October 4, 2022, 9:30am @ Boston University College of Fine Arts October 5, 2022, 2:30pm @ Boston University College of Fine Arts October 7, 2022, 8:00pm @ Boston University College of Fine Arts and streaming on YouTube.
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Hardened beauty
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Featuring music by Derrick Skye, Yaz Lancaster and world premieres by Bongani Ndodana-Breen and Renée C. Baker, Hardened Beauty showcases works that touch on global identities, histories, stories, and subjects that are both personal and universal.
October 23, 2022, 1:30pm @ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
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Love Affects
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A reprise of our first concert EVER, Love Affects, pairs music with text to explore how love influences our sense of self, humanity, heritage, and future. Co-curated with Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence Angel C. Dye.
November 17, 2022, 6:30pm @ The Boston Athenaeum November 18, 2022, 7:00pm @ The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, presented by 5 Boroughs Music Festival
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For Black People
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Featuring solo and chamber music works for flute, cello, soprano and piano by Tania León, Andre Myers, Zenobia Powell Perry, Coleridge Taylor-Perkinson, Undine Smith Moore, and Daniel Bernard Roumain.
November 27, 2022, 3:00pm @ Linde Center for Music and Learning, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA
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Her Phantom happiness: Anthony R. green 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 fourth annual residency, we will feature an immersive three-day residency focused on the music of Anthony R. Green complete with lectures, master classes, open rehearsals and concerts culminating in our portrait concert: Her Phantom Happiness.
December 9, 2022, 8:00pm @ Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music
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a little history
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A Little History is a fun-filled interactive educational workshop for solo narrating violist and kids. The work highlights the importance of such historic figures as Margaret Bonds, Garrett Morgan, Angela Davis, President Barack Obama and more. Young elementary students are encouraged to get up and move, sing, clap, invent, and play make-believe as they learn about these historic figures.
Sunday February 12, 2023, 11:00-11:30AM & 2:00-2:30PM @ Boston Children's Museum
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Play Songs & Games
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The songs and games we played as children were where we learned cultural stories and understood the rhythms and textures of our world. Come join Castle of our Skin in play as we remember, celebrate, learn, and relearn Afro-American and Caribbean play songs and games!
Friday February 24, 2023, 2:00-3:00pm @ The Children’s Library at the Central Library in Copley Square 
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A Spiritual Fantasy
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A Spiritual Fantasy highlights African American composers who had a woven connection with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and William Grant Still: Clarence Cameron White was born five years after Coleridge-Taylor and later studied with him; Florence Price was born six years before Grant Still and grew up as neighbors in Arkansas; Frederick Tillis was born the same year audiences first heard Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony. All of the composers were greatly influenced by a truly unique expression of African American strength, resilience, and community: the Negro Spiritual. A Spiritual Fantasy explores these themes in music, knowing the same sense of strength, resilience, and community were pivotal forces that inspired civil rights activist Octavius Catto, whose story is told in the BSO's later performance of The Passion of Octavius Catto.
Saturday March 4, 2023, 6:00-7:00pm @ Boston Conservatory at Berklee |
Project STEP concert at rockport music
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Project STEP students will play the premiere of Anthony R. Green's Chorale alongside a new edition of Catto's Courage with members of Castle of Our Skins quartet. Chorale is a sonic celebration of stories of Black feminist resistance of the 19th and early 20th centuries and Catto's Courage honors the bravery of Philadelphian activist Octavius Catto.
Sunday March 12, 2023, 3:00pm @ Rockport Music Shalin Liu Performance Center
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Spirit: musiConnect's Ensemble Concert
Castle of our Skins is a Neighborhood Artist
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In 2022, Castle of Our Skins completed a month-long residency at musiConnects, learning and celebrating the life and artistry of Langston Hughes. Students experimented with musicalizing Hughes' already jazzy-style of expression. The words and sounds they created were shared with a composer Joi Harper who created an original work for soprano, piano and student strings. Spirit, mC's spring concert, will feature the world premiere of Harper's piece, Aspirations and Sorrows.
Sunday March 26, 2023, 2:30pm; St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain
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Black student union intercollegiate FESTIVAL
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Castle of Our Skins' BSU Intercollegiate Festival is the second iteration of our 2022 BSU Fellowship. This year we welcome 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 Festival, students will co-curate and present a final concert around the theme of Black Futures, featuring works by living Black composers.
April 1, 2023, 7:00pm | FREE @ Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre Martin Hall
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It must all be done in darkness...
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It Must All Be Done In Darkness... is an intimate and immersive experience centered on Harriet Jacobs. A writer, abolitionist, and survivor, Jacobs spent seven years in isolation before escaping to Massachusetts and earning her freedom. Through film, movement, audience participation, and music, this world premiere opera celebrates Jacobs and her story of perseverance. A story that begs for us to learn, grow, and heal.
This project was created by Anthony R. Green, with support from the Berlin University of the Arts, Boston Cultural Council, Castle of our Skins, and the ancestors.
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...all that is good...
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Featuring the world premiere of Shine by Allison Loggins-Hull with poetry written in honor of our 10th anniversary by U-Meleni Mhlaba Adebo and featuring coloratura soprano Dr. Louise Toppin. Other works by Anthony R. Green, Zenobia Powell Perry, Valerie Coleman, and Adolphus Hailstork.
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THE HOPE OF TOMORROW
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During a residency last fall COOS Teaching Artist Steph Davis lead Boston Children’s Chorus singers in a discussion around Spirituals; touching on themes of home, family, dreams, and hope. The discussions and reflections of the student singers were shared with composer Kennedy Taylor Dixon who created an original choral piece, "A Place for You", which the students will premiere at The Hope of Tomorrow. Stop by the Strand Theatre lobby from 3-6pm to check out the Hope of Tomorrow Gallery, featuring works created by Boston Arts Academy students in conversation with our recent Spirituals residency.
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THE Flea and the Fly
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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.
June 4, 2023 at 2:00 & 3:30pm @ Boston Children's Museum
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Portraits of Spirituals
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For children of all ages Portraits of Spirituals is a 60-minute performance that explores the world of Negro spirituals as arranged for marimba. Audiences will have the opportunity to engage in traditional songs, melodies, and the culture and communities from which they come. No registration required.
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Play Songs & Games
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The songs and games we played as children were where we learned cultural stories and understood the rhythms and textures of our world. Come join Castle of our Skin in play as we remember, celebrate, learn, and relearn Afro-American and Caribbean play songs and games!
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#BCMC 3.0
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Composers who identify as Black and part of the African diaspora were challenged to compose 30 to 60-second pieces for soprano and/or cello!
June 1-18 (Black Music Month!) on Instagram and Facebook for each of the 18 world premieres. Catch all 18 performances and purchase your own digital collection of miniatures (our #BCMC Anthology 3.0) on our store page! |
The Wanderer's Tethering
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