Bronx Arts Ensemble at Weeksville Heritage Center: Compositions of the Contemporary African Diaspora

The Weeksville Heritage Center and Bronx Arts Ensemble come together to present & examine the musical compositions of contemporary African Diasporic Composers Jessie Montgomery(“Strum”), Daniel Bernard Roumain(“String Quartet No.5 “Parks”), Shelley Washington(“MIDDLEGROUND”), & Rhiannon Giddens(“At the Purchaser’s Option with Variations (arr. Jacob Garchik)”) and how their music has been embraced by the field of classical chamber music.

Led by Weeksville’s President & CEO, Dr. Raymond Codrington, a panel of experts in the field of classical music, anchored by Dr. Fredara Hadley(The Juilliard School), will engage in a dialogue, as well as invite the audience to question the importance of African Diasporic Music in the Classical Chamber Music canon.

PROGRAM

WELCOME
Dr. Raymond Codrington
President and Chief Executive Officer at Weeksville Heritage Center
Judith Insell
Executive Director at Bronx Arts Ensemble

PERFORMANCE
BAE String Quartet:
Rhiannon Giddens – At the Purchaser’s Option with Variations (arr. Jacob Garchik)
Shelley Washington – MIDDLEGROUND
Jessie Montgomery – Strum
Daniel Bernard Roumain – String Quartet No. 5 “Parks”
I. “I made up my mind not to move”
II. Klap ur handz
III. Isorhythmiclationistic

PANEL DISCUSSION
Dr. Raymond Codrington, facilitator / Dr. Fredara Hadley/ Judith Insell
Topic: The African Diaspora in the contemporary chamber music canon.
*Examining the surge in African Diasporic Composers’ works being embraced by the field of contemporary chamber music.

AUDIENCE Q & A w/ PANEL

RECEPTION

PERFORMERS

Alexandria Hill is a violinist and singer-songwriter based in New York City. As a violinist, Alexandria has had the privilege to work in recording studios and stages across the US and Europe. She has performed with the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, Recollective Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and Chicago Sinfonietta, all through which she has had the opportunity to perform at the Lincoln Center Stage, Hollywood Bowl, London Southbank Centre, Kennedy Center Stage, and NPR’s Tiny Desk. 

Her eclectic music background has given her the opportunity to share the stage not only with classical musicians like Yo-Yo Ma and Anthony McGill, but also with hip-hop/R&B/jazz artists such as Laufey, John Legend, The Roots, and PJ Morton. As a singer-songwriter, she performs and releases music under her project’s name, ALEXVNDRIA, which seeks to combine sounds of R&B, jazz, and the symphony.

Charlene Bishop began her violin studies at the age of six and was accepted into the Music Advancement Program (MAP) at the Juilliard School. She furthered her studies at the Mannes Pre-College and College of Music with Ann Setzer where she received her BA in Violin Performance and participated at Kinhaven and Fredonia summer music camps as well as the prestigious Meadowmount music camp. Through the years, Charlene has performed at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, Fiddlefest in Zurich, Switzerland, the Kennedy Center, Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium and has collaborated with artists such as Arnold Steinhardt, Wyclef Jean, Madonna, N’Sync, Beres Hammond in Jamaica, and many more. Charlene currently freelances throughout the New York City area.

Charlene has gained a wide range of teaching experience over the years. She currently teaches at Opus 118-Harlem School of Music (where she is an alumni) and the Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly, NJ. She has been teaching at the Elisabeth Morrow School Summer String Festival for twelve years and usually sends her own private students to participate in. In the past, she has taught at the Arlington High School in Poughkeepsie, NY where she conducted violin sectionals for the Orchestra, and was also teaching private lessons to the violin students of the Poughkeepsie area. She has experience teaching children as young as 4 years old (which is a definite strength of hers) all the way to the ages of adulthood. Some of her students have been accepted to the Berklee School of Music and the Special Music School in NYC, as well as Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Middle School Jazz Academy.

Andrew Griffin is an award winning violist, composer, and orchestrator. He has performed in such diverse settings as Saturday Night Live, the Met Gala, Radio City Music Hall, and in the viola sections of the New York Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.  Since 2019, Andrew has held chairs for multiple Broadway shows, and has performed as guest principal violist of the New York Pops.  He was also a semifinalist at the 2012 Washington International Competition for Strings.

Zachary Brown is a cellist, hailing from Brentwood NY. Born in Queens NY, Zachary began the cello age the age of thirteen, in Brentwood middle school. Zachary completed a double degree in cello performance and jazz studies from Ithaca College in 2016 as well as a masters in cello performance from SUNY Purchase in 2019. He has appeared as a guest artist and has given instructional workshops on “chopping” and improvisation at the New Directions Cello festival as well in at the Ithaca Winter Strings Festival.

COMPOSERS

Shelley Washington