Nathaniel Dett Chorale Opens Month-Long Celebration of Black History Month
KEENE, N.H. 01/09/06 - Celebrated as one of Canada’s foremost choral ensembles, the Nathaniel Dett Choral will make its regional debut at Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond, Friday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m.
The performance marks the opening of Brickyard Pond’s month-long celebration of Black History Month. One of the highlights of the evening will occur when the KSC Concert Choir, under the direction of Diane Cushing, will share the stage with the Dett Chorale.
The 21 member Dett Chorale is led by its founder, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, who named the ensemble after the popular African-Canadian composer R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943). Dett, who performed at prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Boston Symphony Hall, was dedicated to the cause of black music, winning the Bowdoin and Frances Boott prizes in 1920 from Harvard University. Blyden-Taylor established the Dett Chorale to draw attention not only to Dett’s legacy, but also to the wealth of Afro-centric choral music.
The classically trained vocalists sing music of all styles, including classical, spiritual, gospel, jazz, folk and blues. They have shared the stage with internationally recognized artists such as Juno Award-winning jazz pianist Joe Sealy; opera star Kathleen Battle and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; the Signal Hill Alumni Choir of Tobago, West Indies, and the Concert Choir of Hampton University, Virginia. The Chorale has also performed at events honoring Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Muhammad Ali.
Born in Trinidad & Tobago, Blyden-Taylor immigrated to Canada in 1973. He founded the Chorale in 1998. He works frequently as a guest conductor, having appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Hannaford Street Silver Band, among others. He is currently a member of the teaching staff at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, and is master teacher with the Toronto Board of Education, coaching teachers and students in conducting and choral technique.
Their Brickyard Pond concert will reflect the diversity of the Dett Chorale’s singing styles. The KSC Concert Choir will join the Dett Chorale for two gospel hymns to be sung at the beginning of the second act of the concert, “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” by Moses Hogan and “Lord, We Give Thanks to Thee” by Undine Smith Moore. Moses Hogan was one of the United States’ most celebrated directors and arrangers of spirituals. Before his untimely death in February 2003 at the age of 45, he created dozens of new original arrangements of classic spirituals and formed several choirs that performed them with new vitality.
African-American composer and educator Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) received numerous awards throughout her lifetime, including the National Association of Negro Musicians Distinguished Achievement Award in 1975 and the Virginia Governor’s Award in the Arts in 1985. In 1977 Moore was named music laureate of Virginia. She co-founded the Black Music Center in 1969 and was on the faculty of Virginia State University for 45 years.
Learn more about the Nathaniel Dett Chorale at their website, www.nathanieldettchorale.org.
Tickets are available through the Brickyard Pond box office, 603-358-2168, or on the web at www.keene.edu/racbp.
Admission is $22 and $19 for the general public, $18 and $15 for seniors and KSC faculty and staff, $11 and $9 for youth 17 and younger, and $5 for KSC students with ID.
The Keene State performance is made possible in part through funding from the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, which receives major support from the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from the state arts agencies of New England and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
