This week the Los Angeles Philharmonic launches an ambitious and diverse series entitled Power to the People! Week 1 starts on March 5th. Power to the People! celebrates the many ways in which music – and the power of music – has helped shape public opinion, influence the actions of governments and given voice to a people who want their opinions to be heard and recognized.
The series starts with Herbie Hancock joining Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil. The first half of the concert begins with an 8-minute piece by Jessie Montgomery entitled Banner which was written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key.
Courtney Bryan’s White Gleam of Our Bright Star is next. The title comes from a line in poet James Weldon Johnson’s Life Every Voice and Sing.
The first half concludes with a performance of jazz saxophone legend Wayne Shorter’s Aurora which uses text by Maya Angelou. (The work is part of a planned bigger piece setting Angelou’s text from her poem The Rock Cries Out to Us Today which she wrote in 1992 for Clinton’s inauguration.)
Hancock joins for the second half which will feature two of his compositions: Ostinatio: Suite for Angela from his album Mwandishi and I Have a Dream from his album The Prisoner – which was a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.
On March 6th Patti Smith and her band will perform. (You don’t really need me to tell you who she is or why this is going to be an amazing concert do you?)
March 7th finds two concerts. The first, at the California African American Museum, is free. Composer and vocalist Imani Uzuri will hold a Revolutionary Choir Salon where she examines protest songs and performs them. (There will be a second performance of this on Sunday, March 8th at 1 PM in BP Hall at Walt Disney Concert Hall which is free and open to tickets holder’s of Yolanda Adams’ Sunday afternoon concert listed below.)
The second concert is back at Walt Disney Concert Hall and features Puerto Rico’s Residente (a Grammy Award-winning rapper/writer/producer) performing with the LA Phil. The first part of the program opens with Montgomery’s Banner which is followed by Gabriela Ortiz‘s Teneek – Invenciones de Territorio. This work was an LA Phil commission that had its world premiere in 2017.
The first week of Power to the People! concludes with gospel singer Yolanda Adams performing with Dudamel and the Phil. Once again, Banner, by Jessie Montgomery opens the program. That is followed by Duke Ellington’s Three Black Kings.
Three Black Kings was Ellington’s last composition. It celebrates King Balthazar, King Solomon and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is one of many large-scale symphonic works Ellington wrote during his career. (And if you’ve never heard one of them performed live by an orchestra, you should.)
For tickets to Herbie Hancock go here.
For tickets to Patti Smith go here.
To RSVP for Imani Uzuri at the California African American Museum go here. (RSVP’s are requested)
For tickets to Residente go here.
For tickets to Yolanda Adams go here.
Image of Gustavo Dudamel, Patti Smith and Herbie Hancock courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.