03-30 Two Wings.Indd
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Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 8 PM THE MAKING OF AMERICA Isaac Stern Auditorium / Ronald O. Perelman Stage Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran, Producers Jason Moran, Piano Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano featuring Isabel Wilkerson, Author Lawrence Brownlee, Tenor Pastor Smokie Norful, Vocals Toshi Reagon, Guitar and Vocals Rev. James A. Forbes Jr., Speaker Hilda Harris, Speaker with Rebecca L. Hargrove, Soprano | Steven Herring, Baritone Harriet Tubman: The Band Brandon Ross, Guitar | Melvin Gibbs, Bass | JT Lewis, Drums Imani Winds Brandon Patrick George, Flute | Toyin Spellman-Diaz, Oboe Mark Dover, Clarinet | Jeff Scott, French Horn Monica Ellis, Bassoon James Carter, Saxophone | Marcus Printup, Trumpet Thomas Flippin, Guitar | Joseph Joubert, Piano The Harlem Chamber Players | Tania León, Conductor Sponsored by United Airlines®, Official Airline of Carnegie Hall The Trustees of Carnegie Hall gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Earle S. Altman in support of the 2018–2019 season. Lead support for Migrations: The Making of America is provided by the Ford Foundation, The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, and Igor Tulchinsky. Additional support is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation. Public support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration featuring readings by Isabel Wilkerson from her book, The Warmth of Other Suns FLORENCE PRICE / Sympathy PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Jason Moran, Piano THOMAS A. DORSEY Precious Lord Joseph Joubert, Piano JAMES P. JOHNSON Carolina Shout Jason Moran, Piano JOE “KING” OLIVER West End Blues Marcus Printup, Trumpet BENNY GOODMAN / Flying Home LIONEL HAMPTON James Carter, Saxophone FLORENCE PRICE Nimble Feet, from Dances in the Canebrakes Thomas Flippin, Guitar BILLIE HOLIDAY / God Bless the Child ARTHUR HERZOG JR. Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Thomas Flippin, Guitar Brandon Ross, Guitar Jason Moran, Piano JASON MORAN Selections from Cane Coincoin’s Narrative Natchitoches to New York Imani Winds Jason Moran, Piano SPIRITUAL There’s a Man Going ’Round Taking Names Lawrence Brownlee, Tenor Jason Moran, Piano PASTOR SMOKIE NORFUL Dear God Pastor Smokie Norful, Vocals Jason Tyson, Piano INTERMISSION GEORGE WALKER Lyric for Strings The Harlem Chamber Players Tania León, Conductor COLERIDGE Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk TAYLOR-PERKINSON Ashley Horne, Violin Curtis Stewart, Violin ANTHONY NEWLEY / Feeling Good, from The Roar of the LESLIE BRICUSSE Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Jason Moran, Piano The Harlem Chamber Players Tania León, Conductor GEORGE GERSHWIN / Summertime, from Porgy and Bess DUBOSE HEYWARD / IRA GERSHWIN Rebecca L. Hargrove, Soprano Joseph Joubert, Piano JEROME KERN / Ol’ Man River, from Show Boat OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II Steven Herring, Baritone Joseph Joubert, Piano (This evening’s program is continued on the following page.) WALTER DONALDSON / How Ya Gonna Keep ’em Down on the JOE YOUNG / SAM M. LEWIS Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?) Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Jason Moran, Piano ALICIA HALL MORAN Believe Me Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Jason Moran, Piano The Harlem Chamber Players Tania León, Conductor SISTER ROSETTA THARPE Rock Me Toshi Reagon, Guitar and Vocals Jason Moran, Piano SPIRITUAL Lord, How Come Me Here Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Joseph Joubert, Piano Rev. James A. Forbes Jr., Speaker Migration Story Hilda Harris, Speaker JASON MORAN Final Speech, from Selma Jason Moran, Piano The Harlem Chamber Players Tania León, Conductor SPIRITUAL He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands (arr. Margaret Bonds) Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Imani Winds The Harlem Chamber Players Tania León, Conductor SPIRITUAL Two Wings Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-Soprano Jason Moran, Piano Harriet Tubman: The Band Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall. Breguet is the Exclusive Timepiece of Carnegie Hall. Land Rover is the Official Vehicle Partner of Carnegie Hall. Mastercard® is the Official Card of Carnegie Hall. United Airlines® is the Official Airline of Carnegie Hall. Pianos by Steinway & Sons, Artistic Partner of Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall is located on property owned by the City of New York and its operation is made possible, in part, by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Carnegie Hall is also supported by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Zankel Hall Shop Kiosk was made possible through a generous donation from Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. Carnegie Hall gratefully acknowledges Ricola’s donation of cough drops for the 2018–2019 season. Concertgoers can find the Ricola cough drops in designated areas throughout the Hall. Nevin Steinberg, Sound Designer Gwendolyn M. Gilliam, Production Manager Join the conversation. @CarnegieHall 1819_PBFiller_SocialMedia_half.indd 1 9/19/18 11:47 AM Carnegie Hall salutes Bank of America for its longstanding partnership as the Hall’s Proud Season Sponsor for 14 consecutive years. Julien Jourdes Proud Season Sponsor Bank of America Cardholders save 10% on tickets to Carnegie Hall Presents concerts during the 2018–2019 season. carnegiehall.org/BankOfAmerica Tonight we are gathering to recognize the epic movement of people— American people, Black people—from the Southern United States and those lands where generations toiled in unremunerated labor to all points North and West. Together, we explore a rough chapter in American history—a long chapter, roughly 1910–1970: the Great Migration. Six million African Americans left the South during this period. Through Two Wings, we settle into the musical worlds defined by this mass movement of people, and we give thanks for the opportunities our great-grandparents and grandparents and parents struggled to deliver to us. The Great Migration shaped my family—and continues to shape my family— just as it transformed the entire nation and continues to echo in the present. I asked my mother, Carole F. Hall—the family historian—about our Southern roots: Our family’s Southern history is rooted in Athens, Georgia. My father’s great-great-grandparents, Hannah and William Hall, were sold at auction in Augusta as children and taken to Athens in bondage to Dr. Edward Ware and his wife, Margaret. William and Hannah eventually married and had four children: Edward, Rebecca, Rachel, and Mary, my father’s great- grandmother. Mary’s daughter, Alice Virginia Sansom, was my father’s grandmother. She was eight years old when all three Hall generations in Athens—never sold or separated by the Wares—were emancipated in 1865. In Athens, site of the University of Georgia, educational opportunities for newly freed African Americans flourished. Alice attended the secondary Knox Institute and Industrial School, built on land donated by three wealthy African Americans, and Atlanta University, the first Black graduate school. In 1878, she married Rev. William D. Johnson (1842–1908), an African Methodist Episcopal Church administrator and orator. Born free in Calvert County, Maryland, he earned two degrees from Lincoln University before settling in Athens. In 1880, he completed his doctorate in divinity. Bank of America Cardholders save 10% on tickets to Their children—Mamie, Decker, Hall, Susan, and Alice Irene (my Carnegie Hall Presents concerts during the 2018–2019 season. grandmother)—also graduated from the Knox Institute and spread their wings. Mamie raised a family in Chicago. Susie became a beautician in carnegiehall.org/BankOfAmerica Philadelphia. After Decker graduated from Tuskegee University, he became a Pullman porter and then a Postal Service clerk in New York City. In 1904, Rev. Johnson was appointed president of Allen University in Columbia, 29 South Carolina—the first Black college in that state. Hall, who was a gifted violinist, entered Allen University as a freshman and graduated in 1909. He went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania and the Hahn School of Music in Philadelphia. By 1921, Hall Johnson had become a force in the Harlem Renaissance and had toured with stars such as James Reese Europe. He played in the pit in Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s Broadway hit Shuffle Along. After a year (1924–1925) at the Institute of Musical Art (later part of The Juilliard School), he organized the Hall Johnson Choir to honor the traditional spirituals sung by his grandmother, Mary Hall. Meanwhile my grandmother, Alice Irene Johnson (1890–1983), had married Robert Foster of Athens. On the eve of the Great Depression, widowed with their five children—William Robert, Mary Ellen, Alfred (my father), Marcus, and Celeste—she became the last of her siblings to leave the South. She migrated to Philadelphia, before eventually leaving for Pasadena, California, in the 1940s. Pasadena had a civic culture comparable to Athens. It was Hall Johnson who recommended the move. Just as he had been the first of his siblings to relocate to Philadelphia and then to New York, he was the first to discover Southern California. He traveled to Los Angeles and lived there periodically, scoring films, producing plays, and directing performances of the Hall Johnson Choir. Alfred Foster (1922–2009) discovered California when the Navy shipped him from Philadelphia to San Diego towards the end of WWII. He met your grandmother, Constance Barrick (1923–2009), at Cheyney State Teacher’s College near Philadelphia. His grandfather, Rev. William D. Johnson, and her grandfather, George Barrick, were both born in Maryland two years apart. But George was enslaved, and when freedom came—with neither opportunities nor education—he headed North, passed Philadelphia, and kept walking until he found steady employment as a gardener on a Main Line estate. It was there that he married Elizabeth Long. Three of their children survived: Edward, Herbert, and Clara. Edward married Vaunita Allen, your great-grandmother, and created a family business that sent all 10 of their children to college.