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Virtual Concert Hall | Honor and Praise
January 18, 2022 - February 28, 2022
Free
A virtual discussion on the intersection of music, culture, and Black identity featuring an interdisciplinary panel of Black scholars—Dr. Fredara Hadley, ethnomusicologist; Dr. Trevor Weston, composer; and Dr. Raymond Codrington, cultural anthropologist.
GUEST SPEAKERS
Dr. Fredara Hadley
Dr. Trevor Weston
Weston’s Flying Fish, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its 125 Commission Project and the American Composers Orchestra, was described as having, “…episodes of hurtling energy, the music certainly suggested wondrous aquatic feats. I was especially affected, though, by an extended slower, quizzical episode with pensive strings and plaintive chords.” (New York Times). The Boston Landmarks Orchestra commissioned Griot Legacies for choir and orchestra, a work created with four innovative arrangements of African American Spirituals. Griot Legacies demonstrates Weston’s “knack for piquant harmonies, evocative textures, and effective vocal writing.” (Boston Globe) The Grammynominated Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street, under the direction of Julian Wachner, recorded Trevor Weston’s choral works. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered Weston’s composition Dig It, commissioned by the group for the Ecstatic Music Festival in NYC.
A list of ensembles performing Trevor Weston’s compositions include Roomful of Teeth, The Boston Children’s Chorus, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue Choir, The Starling Chamber Orchestra, Mallarme Chamber Players, The Providence Singers, Chicago Sinfonietta, Seraphic Fire, The Tufts Chamber Chorus, Ensemble Pi, The Amernet String Quartet, The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, The Washington Chorus, Trilogy: An Opera Company, and The Manhattan Choral Ensemble. In addition to his creative work, Weston completed the re-orchestration of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto for the Center for Black Music Research in 2010.
Trevor Weston’s musical education began at St. Thomas Choir school in NYC at the age of ten. He received his BA from Tufts University and continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned his MA and PhD in music composition. His primary composition teachers were T. J. Anderson, Olly Wilson and Andrew Imbrie and Richard Felciano. Dr. Weston is currently a Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Drew University in Madison, NJ.
Dr. Raymond Codrington
During his career, Raymond has developed programming focused on urban expressive culture for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of Los Angeles as an independent curator and consultant. He has also held several senior-level roles at prominent cultural institutions, including as founding director of the Julian C. Dixon Institute for Cultural Studies, and curator in the Department of Anthropology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He was also the Sandy Boyd Postdoctoral Fellow at the Field Museum’s Center for Cultural Understanding and Change.
Raymond studied Government and African-American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his doctorate in anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Ray has conducted ethnographic research across the U.S. and U.K., studying race, blackness, equity, Hip-Hop, popular culture, and civic engagement. Raymond lives with his family in Brooklyn.