“How can a moment of protest and isolation inspire creative rebirth? That’s the question renowned pianist Lara Downes is exploring as the host of a new [NPR] video series … titled ‘Amplify With Lara Downes,’ ” reports Ari Shapiro in Monday’s (10/26) National Public Radio. “Downes says the mission of the series is to present intimate conversations with Black musicians who are experiencing creative awakenings during a time of transformation and uncertainty. Q: In the second episode … you speak with Anthony McGill, who’s the principal clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic. He shared this powerful video over the summer … of ‘America the Beautiful’ … Why did you want to talk with him about this? Downes: Anthony is someone who has kept himself purely in the space of music…. Two days after George Floyd was killed … he had this awakening, letting himself feel things about himself as a Black man, as a Black artist, as Black citizen, and sharing those things which he had not until now. We talk about that moment when your artistry and your ambassadorship … collide with activism…. And when it comes, it transforms you, I think, permanently.”
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