Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra 2023/24: Mighty River: Celebrating Women
BPO's Joanna McGregor conducts music from female composers for IWD. Also featuring guest performer Ayanna Witter-Johnson playing her own music
Meredith Monk Ellis Island
Nina Simone Good Bait
Eleanor Alberga Clouds (first movement)
Errollyn Wallen Mighty River
Ayanna Witter-Johnson solo voice and cello
Florence Price Mississippi Suite
Joanna MacGregor conductor
and guests
For International Women’s Day, Joanna MacGregor’s programme showcases exciting music by female composers. British/Jamaican Eleanor Alberga’s filigree Clouds was commissioned by London Contemporary Dance and matches their scudding, drifting and storming. Award-winning Errollyn Wallen - composer, pianist and jazz singer - explores themes of slavery and freedom in her magnificent Mighty River, quoting Amazing Grace at the beginning, gathering momentum like a river flowing to the sea.
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas and part of the Chicago scene with the poet and activist Langston Hughes, Florence Price was the first African American symphonic composer. Her powerful Mississippi River Suite starts with an evocation of dawn, before exploring Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, Stand Still Jordan, Go Down, Moses and Deep River
Concert Bundles:
*Excludes New Year’s Eve Gala and Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale
