A Spirituals Experience and Music She Wrote: A Celebration of Women Composers

Yolanda F. Johnson, soprano and Michael Eisenberg, piano. Open to students, faculty, and the community.

A Spirituals Experience.
Why “Wade in the Water?” Was there a reason to tell the chariot to “Swing Low?” Yolanda F. Johnson explores the emotional, spiritual journey and hidden communication traditional African American spirituals conveyed for enslaved Africans in America and the influence of spirituals on American music, including the debate on viewing them as part of the American Art Song canon. First premiered in Harlem in February 2011 for Black History Month, Yolanda continues to offer special insight on traditional spirituals with performances of A Spirituals Experience. Part lecture, part recital, the program also includes a sing-along for audience members to gain a new understanding of these well-known and beloved songs.

Music She Wrote: A Celebration of Women Composers.
The concert takes the audience on a musical journey from the Middle Ages, with chant by prolific composer, abbess, and mystic Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), to the present day, with compositions by Lucy Coolidge and Lena McLin. Other featured composers include Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), Florence Price (1887-1953) and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847). The program notes alone are worthy of saving, as they include a trove of knowledge related to the composers, their lived experiences and what influenced their music as women at various times in history.