On Sunday, March 28, 3 pm at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, the Windham Orchestra, under the direction of Hugh Keelan, will celebrate the poignant and powerful spirituals created by enslaved African people in America, and the music they have inspired.

The work of Harry Burleigh, the grandson of a slave, born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and one of a tiny number of black musicians of his time trained in a European Classical tradition, provided the inspiration for two of the compositions to be performed during the Windham Orchestra’s African-American Spirituals Concert.

Antonín Dvorák's Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” is an acknowledged pinnacle of the Romantic / Nationalist classical music repertoire. And yet, at the same time, it is perfect for music lovers not ready for, or fearful of, the rich, heady, time- and attention-demanding world of symphonic orchestral music.

Dvo&rák was Czech, the 'New World' was America, so whose 'Nationalism' is embedded in the symphony? At first sight, and for the preponderance of the symphony, the answer seems to be 'Czech', simply because it sounds so; but enter the figure of Harry Burleigh.

Burleigh met Dvorák in New York in 1892, and introduced the fully-formed and internationally-honored composer to the repertoire known as Negro Spirituals. Burleigh was perhaps the most significant popularizer of spirituals, composing accompaniments for voice and piano (no doubt frequently appropriated for Estey parlor organs), and taking this music from southern fields, camps and slave quarters to geographically diverse and well-to-do homes, churches and concert venues. To this day, you can go into Maple Leaf Music in Brattleboro and order Burleigh's collections of spirituals. His collections are for us, as they were for Dvořák, starting points for discovery.

Dvorák's delight with the spirituals Burleigh showed him is well-known, and he paid them deep compositional homage at two key moments in the symphony. The most impressive and famous is the heart-breaking melody played by english horn in the slow (second) movement. It seems not to quote or refer to any single element from Burleigh's collection, but Dvorák had absorbed this repertoire so sensitively that this symphonic tune became, after the fact, an honorary spiritual to be sung to the words 'Goin' Home'.

Subtle, but completely specific in its reference, is a tender little tune early in the first movement, played first by solo flute then violins in octaves. It has bouncy, asymmetric rhythms, and a feeling of curling around itself. This is demonstrably a reworking of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' at a faster tempo: two lines (Swing low, sweet chariot... comin' for to carry me home) are completely intact, and Dvorák adds charming cadential curlicues.

Closer acquaintance with the symphony reveals that this particular figure (sing to yourself the syllables 'cha-ri-o-ot') generates one of several unifying motifs for whole symphonic span. The tune recurs explicitly at two climactic points, and implicitly hides in characteristic rhythms all over the place. It is lovely to think of Dvorák's rich organic process as an image of cultural and racial harmony, as the Czech and Spiritual musical elements live side by side with no discomfort or condescension.

A century later, Harry Burleigh’s collection remained an equally powerful starting point and inspiration when the Burleigh Society of Erie, PA, commissioned Hugh Keelan to compose orchestral arrangements of the spiritual. Keelan’s orchestrations for solo voice and orchestra, are esteemed for being true to the original unadorned power of the spirituals that Burleigh transcribed and the deep sensitivity of Burleigh's own arrangements while channeling the urgency of our own times.

Born on Kingston-upon-Thames in England, Hugh Keelan has been a pianist since age 8, later also a violist. At the age of 16 Maestro Keelan conducted Beethoven's Emperor Concerto in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He went on to study Music at Cambridge, his primary mentor being Robin Holloway, graduating with a Double First, the Hughes Prize 'for outstanding excellence', and the award of a coveted Harkness Fellowship (comparable to a Rhodes Scholarship) that allowed him to study conducting at Indiana University and Mannes College. Remaining in New York for private study with Vladimir Kin (from the Leningrad school of Mravinsky and Rabinovich,) he worked at the American Opera Center at the Juilliard School.

In the spring of 2006, Maestro Hugh Keelan performed as piano soloist in Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto with the Erie Philharmonic in addition to conducting Die Meistersinger Prelude, Till Eulenspiegel and the Afternoon of a Faun. Keelan is also admired as an arranger, most recently having performed his own orchestration of Szymanowski's Romance op.23 with the Erie Philharmonic and their concertmaster Ken Johnston. These performances capped Maestro Keelan's tenure as Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic, which followed a 15-year tenure as Music Director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic.

In Brattleboro on Sunday, under the direction of Hugh Keelan, the Windham Orchestra will premier Keelan’s orchestrations of Harry Burleigh's Spirituals with vocal soloists Samirah Evans and Moonlight Davis, and featuring the Swing Low Chorus.

In New Orleans, a city known worldwide for its music, Samirah Evans was one of its most popular jazz & blues vocalists. She first performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1990, and became a regular fixture as either a leader or featured vocalist for fourteen consecutive years. She has toured Europe, Asia, and both North and South America as a headliner, and shared stages with a multitude of legendary artists from B.B. King and James Brown, to New Orleans own Queen of Soul, Irma Thomas. In 2006, Ms. Evans relocated to Brattleboro, Vermont, following the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

Moonlight Davis has been singing Gospel music in the Pentecostal Church since age 4 when he stood up on the offering table and sang the Lord's Prayer. He has opened for the Wynans, conducted gospel choirs and sung in churches all over the East Coast. He has shared the stage with the legendary Billy Preston, Evelyn Harris of Sweet Honey in the Rock and local musical luminaries including: Erik Lawrence, David Wertman, Derrik Jordan, Vishnu Wood, and Bob Weiner.

Keelan’s arrangements, featuring Evans and Davis include: Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, Heav'n, Heav'n, De Blin' Man Stood On De Road An' Cried featuring Phil Bloch, viola, De Gospel Train, Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho, and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot with the Swing Low Chorus, directed by Andy Davis comprising students from the Oak Grove and Dover Schools.

Also featured in Sunday’s performance is young violinist Elena Yasinski, the Windham Orchestra’s High School Concerto competition winner, performing Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 in b minor, opus 61 with the orchestra. Yasinski, 17, of Florence, MA, is currently a student of Philipp Naegele, and participates in the New England Conservatory (NEC) Preparatory School, Youth Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Zander; and a string quartet coached by Lynn Chang.

The Windham Orchestra’s African-American Spirituals concert will be held on Sunday, March 28, 3 pm, at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, Vermont. Proceeds from this concert will benefit the Brattleboro Music Center’s Music in the Schools program. Tickets, general admission $15, students/seniors $7, donors $25, patrons $50, are available in advance by at BrattleboroTix.com or by calling the BMC at 802-257-4523.

Contact Information:

Pam Lierle
pam@bmcvt.org
(802) 257-4523