New Year’s: Music of Vision and Inspiration

An in-person weekend with Maestro Karl Middleman
Amidst these times of strife, where can we gain inspiration? Where is peace and tranquility to be found? "Music of Vision and Inspiration" offers compelling reasons to be resilient and hopeful. According to reformer and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, "Music is a prophecy of what life is to be, the rainbow of promise translated into hearing." "Music of Vision and Inspiration" delivers on Child's prophecy by exploring composers' engagement with serious social issues such as war and plague to find edification and upliftment.
Striding across centuries of great music, we will consider Shostakovich's heroic response to Stalin's brutal totalitarianism; discover the patriotism of Chopin, Smetana, and Janacek who saw nationalism as a positive force for both identitarianism and universalism; uncover the stellar Mass for Notre Dame by 14th Century Guilliame de Machaut, a survivor of the Black Plague; and salute the perseverance of Gabriela Lena Frank who, amidst her personal struggles with deafness, founded the Creative Academy of Music.
A unique bonus: we will view a special screening of the recent, widely acclaimed Metropolitan Opera production of "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" by Terrence Blanchard. "Fire'" is the first Met-commissioned opera by a Black composer. Based on the life ofNew York Timescolumnist Charles Blow, the story explores sexual predation and reconciliation in a southern family.