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Modern Notebook for June 18 - 24, 2023

Composer Adolphus Hailstork (photo courtesy of the artist).

This week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline is a mix of music for Juneteenth, including Shelley Washington’s “BLACK MARY,”  inspired by the Black American historical figure Stagecoach Mary; music by Courtney Bryan including her “Secondline for Black Love;” Nia Imani Franklin’s re-imagining of Aphrodite as “Afro-Dite;” and Alice Coltrane’s “Prema.” 


Plus works by Nathalie Joachim and Shawn E. Okpebholo inspired by historical moments in Black History; and the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Adolphus Hailstork, whose music draws on the composer’s experience as an African American and his own love of jazz and blues music.


Also featuring music by Anthony R. Green, Carlos Simon, Rhiannon Giddens, George Lewis, and Jessie Montgomery; and performances by Ensemble Pi, fivebyfive, harpist Ashley Jackson with The Harlem Chamber Players, PUBLIQuartet, saxophonist Jeffrey Leung, cellist Seth Parker Woods, pianist Stewart Goodyear with the Buffalo Philharmonic, baritone Will Liverman, and more.

Hour 1

  • Carnival of Unity by Courtney Bryan.
  • Anthony R. Green’s …a tiny dream…
  • Be Still and Know by Carlos Simon.
  • Alice Coltrane Prema.
  • At the Purchaser’s Option by Rhiannon Giddens.
  • Nia Imani Franklin’s Afro-dite.
  • BLACK MARY by Shelley Washington.

Hour 2

  • Un petit brouillard cérébral by George Lewis.
  • Nathalie Joachim’s The Race: 1915.
  • Piano Concerto No. 1 by Adolphus Hailstork.
  • Ballad of Birmingham from Shawn E. Okepbholo’s Two Black Churches.
  • Jessie Montgomery’s Rhapsody.

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