Orchestrating Blackness:
Music of Irene Britton Smith & Julia Perry
Oakland Symphony Music Director, Kedrick Armstrong, discusses markers of identity in the work of modernist Black female composers, Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry. Tickets: Free
Conductor Kedrick Armstrong explores identity in the work of Black female composers, Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry.
In “Orchestrating Blackness: Music of Irene Britton Smith and Julia Perry,” Oakland Symphony Music Director and Conductor, Kedrick Armstrong, will discuss the work of these modernist Black female composers. Armstrong will discuss sonic and stylistic features of Smith’s and Perry’s music, and ask, in an era preoccupied with identity, are we overlooking important music that does not carry obvious identity markers? Organized in partnership with the Oakland Symphony and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Tickets are available on the San Francisco Conservatory of Music website.
Maestro Armstrong will be making his debut as Music Director and Conductor at Oakland Symphony on Friday, 18 October. For more information about concert tickets, visit oaklandsymphony.org.
Tickets: Free.
Event Details
14 October 2024 at 7:30pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall
50 Oak Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Featuring
Kedrick Armstrong is Music Director of the Oakland Symphony, and Creative Partner and Principal Conductor of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony. His recent career highlights include debuting at the Lyric Opera of Chicago to premiere a new opera, The Factotum. He also appeared at the Opera Theater of St. Louis as one of the festival’s assistant/cover conductors (Tosca, Susannah), served as assistant conductor for Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride at Chicago Opera Theater, and music director for Monteverdi’s L’Orfero with Wheaton College’s Opera Mainstage. This season, he leads members of the Chicago Symphony in Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1.
The Washington Post named Kedrick Armstrong one of “22 for ’22: Composers and performers to watch.” Kedrick uses his voice and platform as a Black conductor to advocate for classical music’s performance, publication, and preservation of minority voices.
“Armstrong also has taken a lead role in confronting issues of diversity (or the lack thereof) in classical conservatory curriculum…”
–The Washington Post
(Named Armstrong one of 22 composers and performers to watch in 2022)
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