The March to Liberation

Still’s Symphony No. 2, Song of a New Race, celebrates the Black American as, in the composer’s words, “a totally new individual.” Adolphus Hailstork’s oratorio Done Made My Vow, A Ceremony, conceived here for the stage by director Tazewell Thompson, honors the countless Black Americans who have faced “the bench of injustice, and, by doing so, changed a nation.” A World Premiere by Courtney Bryan, with a new libretto by Thompson, celebrates a variety of Black musical heritage. Leslie B. Dunner conducts.