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Dewberry School of Music Commissions Two New Works by Black Composers The Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music presented A Song of Freedom: Featuring World Premieres by Evelyn Simpson-Curenton and Michael W. Nickens on Saturday, May 8, 2021 as part of Mason Arts at Home. The pre-recorded digital concert featured more than 100 students performing as part of the momentous event, celebrating unity and resilience in the face of division and uncertainty. The program’s world premieres were commissioned by the Dewberry School of Music from renowned composer Evelyn Simpson-Curenton and Mason’s own Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Green Machine Ensembles, Michael W. Nickens (Doc Nix). Simpson-Curenton’s world premiere of Passages featured current students from across the University Choirs, a guest solo by Mason alumna and Metropolitan Opera artist Aundi Marie Moore, and solos from current students Rosie Wright, Case Hope, and Eliyahu Young. Nickens’s original work, The Orator, The Abolitionist, The Man: Frederick Douglass, is based on the 1893 biography written by his great-great grandfather James Monroe Gregory, a contemporary of Douglass. His piece featured the Mason Wind Symphony, members of the Green Machine, and spoken word derived directly from the biography and Douglass’s speeches, delivered as narration by Nickens himself. Nickens shared, “As a work very much in progress (the second movement of a larger composition I am creating), I am grateful to our students collaborating with me to bring this nine-month project to life. I hope all who experience it hear the narration both as an artifact of our American history and as an opportunity to connect with the enduring issues that are being addressed today.”
EXPERIENCE IT HEAR THE NARRATION BOTH AS AN ARTIFACT OF OUR AMERICAN HISTORY AND AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT WITH THE ENDURING ISSUES THAT ARE BEING ADDRESSED TODAY.” MICHAEL W. NICKENS (DOC NIX), Director of University Life Ensembles and Collaborative Arts, Associate Professor of Music
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Music alumna and Metropolitan Opera artist makes solo appearance in Passages
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CVPA 2020-2021 ANNUAL REPORT 11
