Electric Earth Concerts has received an Art Works award of $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, for its project titled Changing the Conversation.
Changing the Conversation presents great and rarely heard works in a series of four concerts exploring the interplay of gender, race, politics, and aesthetics that has helped to shape the language of American music during the last 100 years.
We will highlight the voices of women composers who struggled to be heard in the early decades of the 20th century, black and brown composers who brought their identity to the classical music of their day, and “maverick” composers who worked outside European aesthetic parameters.
We look forward to bringing you Changing the Conversation over the course of this season and next, as conditions allow.
Canceled: Spiritual Voices
Saturday, July 25, 2020,
Olly Wilson’s “A City Called Heaven” for large ensemble, Ben Johnston’s classic “Amazing Grace” quartet, a setting of spirituals by Mark Kuss, and a work by Anthony Kelly touch on the underlying theme of Changing the Conversation: how the interplay of gender, race, politics, and aesthetics has helped to shape the language of American music.
Videocast: American Mavericks
Sunday, August 2, 2020,
American Mavericks—New Morse Code + Thomas Kotcheff, in a Videocast of contemporary works by Philip Glass, Frederic Rzewski, David Lang, Tonia Ko and Thomas Kotcheff.
Videocast: Ladies on the Move
Saturday, August 15, 2020,
Four women, two of them African American, cover a huge stylistic range despite all being born prior to 1920, when the 19th amendment gave the vote to women. Music of Amy Beach, Marion Bauer, Undine Smith Moore, and Margaret Bonds. Part of a three-day commemoration of the suffrage centennial with events hosted by the Amos Fortune Forum, the Monadnock Lyceum, and Electric Earth Concerts. Featuring soprano Marlissa Hudson, and pianist Marvin Mills.
Videocast: Catalyst Quartet, Uncovered
Saturday, December 5, 2020, 4:00 pm
Florence B. Price and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson contributed beautifully crafted work to the twentieth century repertoire but have not been widely celebrated; the Catalyst’s own Jessie Montgomery and Mexican composer Javier Álvarez complete this dynamic and eye-opening program.
