Shawn E. Okpebholo: Songs in Flight | MetLiveArts
Shawn E. Okpebholo, composer
Tsitsi Ella Jaji, text curator
featuring works by Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Crystal Simone Smith, and Tyehimba Jess, and ads from The Freedom on the Move Database
Kimille Howard, director
Gabriel Vega Weissman, associate director
Rhiannon Giddens, voice
Karen Slack, soprano
Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Will Liverman, baritone
Howard Watkins, piano
Conceived and commissioned by Sparks & Wiry Cries
Movements:
1. prologue: oh freedom — a spiritual
2. in flight — a quiet song
3. asko or glasgow — a chaconne
4. peter — a work song
5. mud song — a folk song
6. jack (and paul) — a field holler
7. mariah francis — a waltz
8. matilda’s tom — an anthem
9. i go by robert — a protest song/reprise
10. ahmaud — an elegiac lullaby
11. four martins — a dirge
12. jubilee: thomas rutling (1854?–1915) — a lament/quasi reprise
For more information, view this performance’s digital program at
“Songs in Flight“ was made possible by the Frank & Lydia Bergen Foundation, the Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art, Douglas Dockery Thomas, and an anonymous foundation.
Recorded at the World Premiere on Thursday, January 12, 2023 in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
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