Music and Dance Presents the SDSU Choir's Spring Concert
The West Coast premiere of For My People
The School of Music and Dance presents nearly 300 concerts and performances each semester. The upcoming Choir Spring Concert is a performance not-to-be missed.
The Sunday, March 24 concert will culminate with the West Coast premiere of "For My People," a new musical work by composer Randy Klein based on the poems of Margaret Walker. The concert will take place at the College Avenue Baptist Church and is free of charge and is open to the public.
About "For My People"
"For My People" is a breathtaking musical work that encompasses various genres.
The piece includes contemporary music forms, gospel, piano improvisation, musical-theatre and performance elements that incorporate and paint the poetry of African-American poet, novelist and essayist Margaret Walker.
The musical intertwines two forms of expression — poetry and music — offering wide appeal to audiences of classical and contemporary vocal music as well as lovers of poetry, those interested in African-American History and fans of Margaret Walker.
The piece features composer Randy Klein on piano, vocal solos by Broadway performer Aurelia Williams and the 80-voice Aztec Concert Choir, all under the direction of Patrick Walders.
“My attraction to the poetry of Margaret Walker was the result of a New York City subway trip from Brooklyn to Manhattan on or about February 2000,” explained composer Randy Klein. “Printed on a placard from the Poetry In Motion series was a poem by Margaret Walker titled, For My People. It began, 'My grandmothers were strong.'
As the subway train rumbled on, I was lost in the words of Ms. Walker’s heartfelt poetry. A few weeks later I again became aware of the placard with Lineage on it. This time, I scribbled down the poem on a piece of paper, and when I got home, I went to my piano and composed music for it. This was the beginning of 'For My People'.”
This SDSU presentation of For My People includes a dynamic multi-media performance with video projections corresponding to the images in the poetry and rare footage of Walker reading her own poetry. It is presented in collaboration with the SDSU Department of English and Comparative Literature and the SDSU Black Student Unions.
About Margaret Walker
Margaret Walker (1915-1998) honed her skills in the 1930s radicalism building on the intellectual and cultural legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. Her identity was further shaped by her teaching experiences at segregated schools in the South in the 1940s and ’50s; the Black Arts and Black Power in the 1960s and ’70s, and the black women’s renaissance of the 1980s and ’90s.
More information
The concert will begin at 4 p.m., March 24, at the College Avenue Baptist Church. For more information, visit the SDSU School of Music and Dance website.
