This pre-performance lecture with violist, violinist and conductor Amadi Azikiwe looks at the composers featured in this program and their embrace of their multi-cultural inheritance, adding something personal and of historic importance to their music.
This program highlights the works of composers who have embraced their multi-cultural inheritance and added something personal and of historic importance to their music. Whether it’s the Black Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as in the works of Xavier Foley and Jessie Montgomery, the post-romantic string quartet conventions of the early 20th century as in the music of Florence Price, Coleridge-Taylor, the inclusion of indigenous and folk tunes of Ginastera, or the contemporary events of our time as in SEVEN by Andrea Casarrubios, examining the seven works on our pre-performance talk will reveal a rich set of circumstances and inspirations that brought about their creation. The Sphinx Ensemble have put together a provocative program inspired by tradition and revolution, adaptation and change so important to our survival as a society.
This recorded pre-performance lecture is available to view now through April 11.
About the Speaker
Amadi Azikiwe, violist, violinist and conductor, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., including an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Azikiwe has also been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He has appeared in recital at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, the “Discovery” recital series in La Jolla, the International Viola Congress, and at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since then, he has performed throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, Switzerland, India, Japan, Nigeria, Hong Kong, and throughout the Caribbean.
