On May 29, Philadelphia’s Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra will perform the final concert of its inaugural season, a program of works by American composers. The free concert, to be held at the Baptist Temple on Temple University’s main campus, is presented in partnership with the Art Sanctuary’s 26th Annual Celebration of Black Writing Festival from May 19 to 29, during which writers and students participate in panels, workshops, a teachers’ symposium, a basketball tournament, and other activities. The orchestra will perform Aaron Copland’s Quiet City, Ellis Marsalis’s Fourth Autumn for trumpet and orchestra, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and Ernst Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1; after intermission, the Rodney Mack Philadelphia Big Brass will perform music by African-American composer and Philadelphia native Francis Johnson. The BPCO was founded in 2008 by Music Director Jeri Lynne Johnson (pictured), winner of a Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship in 2005. The chamber orchestra’s stated mission is to “enhance minority inclusion in classical music by presenting concerts and educational programming of the highest artistic standard.”
Posted May 10, 2010
