This February promises to be one of tremendous transitions. From winter to spring, pandemic to endemic, this will be the month we hopefully see signs of a return to normal starting to emerge crocus-like from this hard winter. It also will be a month of great musical performances that we are eager to present to you, our stalwart, amazing, generous, steadfast, handsome audience ;)

Greg Ewer and friends take on this really interesting program of two unknown works, the Grand Trio by Hélène Liebmann, and American Daniel Bernard Roumain’s fiery Filter for solo fiddle. Rounding out the program will be Robert Schumann’s iconic (and very well-known) Piano Quartet in E flat major.

I love the opportunity a concert like this presents to learn about the artistry of someone like Hélène Liebmann, a pianist from 19th century Berlin who dazzled audiences as a child prodigy, and published her first composition when she was 15. Hearing Liebmann’s Grand Trio (1817) is a wonderful reminder of how rich the cultural ferment was for composers like Robert Schumann to draw from in composing his Piano Quartet 35 years later (1842). It’s a musical time capsule from a brilliant artist whose music deserves many more performances.

Daniel Bernard Roumain is an American treasure, combining elements of classical, jazz, and hip-hop to create a singularly resonant musical language. Filter is a virtuosic torrent of notes, truly difficult music that 45^th Parallel founder Greg Ewer will deliver like the consummate pro that he is.

Check out DBR’s video of Filter here.

As a largely white organization in a largely white community, we have benefitted from the contributions and influence of the artistry of composers from the black community, and our concert, Human Family, is presented as a celebration of the continuing influence of these artists. While Black History Month is the setting for this program, it’s just one part of a larger year-round commitment we’ve always had to present the full story of classical music, with a focus on the work of BIPOC artists.

45^th Parallel’s tradition of presenting concerts during Black History Month began several years ago with mousai REMIX’s stellar performances of music by Joseph Bologne, Florence Price, and Daniel Bernard Roumain in a program titled Sons of the Soil. See their brilliant performance of Joseph Bologne’s Quartet Concertante here.

Our program on February 17th features Keyla Orozco’s Piezas de Bolsillo, William Grant Still’s Incantation and Dance, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet in F minor, and Valerie Coleman’s Fanmi Imèn (Human Family). I’m especially excited to hear my colleagues play Coleridge-Taylor’s magnificent Nonet, written in 1894 when he was 19 years old!

Valerie Coleman was a founding member of the Imani Winds, and her work Fanmi Imèn is Haitian Creole for Maya Angelou’s famous work, Human Family. Both the musical and literary poems acknowledge differences within mankind, either due to ethnicity, background, or geography, but Angelou’s refrain, “we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike,” reaffirms our humanity as a reminder of unity.

Human Family, by Maya Angelou

I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I’ve sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I’ve seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I’ve not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,
we weep on England’s moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we’re the same.

I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

Ron Blessinger
Executive Director, 45^th Parallel Universe