Sat 5/17 @ 7:30PM
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra concludes its 15th season, collaborating with the Cleveland Chamber Choir (celebrating its 10th) to perform two pieces: Margaret Bonds’ Credo, a musical setting of early 20th century civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1904 prose poem, and Mozart’s Mass in C minor. They’ve dubbed the evening “I Believe! Knitted Voices of Justice and Faith.”
The concert will feature soprano and Oberlin Conservatory faculty member Katherine Jolly, with Cleveland Chamber Choir Artistic Director Gregory Ristow conducting Credo, and BlueWater Artistic Director Daniel Meyer leading the Mozart Mass.
Du Bois’ Credo is considered one of the cornerstone documents of the Civil Right movement; it was set to musician by African-American composer Bonds in the 1960s (the orchestral version debuted in 1967). Using jazz- and gospel-inflected classical music, the piece reflects on Du Bois’s “nine elements of belief”: God, “the Negro race,” pride, service, the devil, the Prince of Peace, liberty for all, the training of children and patience.
The concert takes place at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Cleveland. Get tickets here.