A concert that will shine a light on the Black Lives Matter movement and address the theme of reparations for the African-American community will stream online later this month.
Presented by Center at West Park, “Reparations Now!” is the latest project by Ensemble Pi, a new-music group founded in 2002 that features composers whose work seeks to open a dialogue between ideas and music on some of the world’s current and critical issues. Focusing on social justice, Ensemble Pi has presented concerts in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and opposing police brutality and systemic racism since 2015.
“Reparations Now!” will be livestreamed on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. This streaming premiere is free with a suggested donation of $10.
The program will start with a performance of Courtney Bryan’s “Elegy,” performed on piano, clarinet, violin, and cello, followed by Georg Friedrich Haas performing a trumpet solo entitled “I can’t breathe (In memoriam Eric Garner).” Next will be the world premieres of Allison Loggins-Hull’s “Pattern,” featuring text from Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” Angélica Negrón’s “Conversación a distancia” and Trevor Weston’s “Pinkster Kings.”
Following these performances is “Requiem for Elijah,” an improvisation for any combination of instruments and/or voices, based on Elijah McClain’s last words, and a reading of an excerpt from Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist.”
The Center at West Park is a community performing arts center based in the historic West Park Presbyterian Church, a New York City landmark. The concert will be presented as a part of the Center’s new Virtual Performance residency program, which provides artists with safe and socially-distant space for media production, marketing and fundraising support.
To register, visit www.centeratwestpark.org/events/ensemble-pi-reparations-now. The recording will be available on www.ensemble-pi.org until Nov. 30.
