America Transformed

Friday, September 8, 2023 – Monday, September 11, 2023
7pm doors / 7:30–9:30pm performances
Don Buchwald Theater
$30 general (discounts available for students, faculty, staff, veterans, and seniors—contact box office)

The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College launches its Fall 2023 program with the work of composer Wadada Leo Smith. Premiering over four days, America Transformed features eighteen compositions written between 1985–2023.

America Transformed serves as a spiritual sequel to Smith’s Pulitzer Prize finalist Ten Freedom Summers, expanding its focus to a wider arc of American artists, activists, and constitutional history.

Featuring

Shalini Vijayan, violin
Mona Tian, violin
Andrew McIntosh, viola
Ashley Walters, cello
+ Karen Parks, soprano

Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet, composer
Ashley Walters, cello
Erika Dohi, piano
Sylvie Courvoisier, piano
Pheeroan aKlaff, drums
Frank Morrison, drums

José Solares — saxophone
Ana Luisa Diaz de Cossio — violin
Yoshi Weinberg — flute
Aaron Rourk
Marianne Gythfeldt — bass clarinet
Chris Nappi — percussion
Martine Thomas — viola

Program

Friday, September 8, 2023

1) String Quartet no. 13: The 13th Amendment
2) Mercy 1: Movements 1–7
3) Chaco Canyon – Ancient Pueblo Civilization
4) Muhammad Ali

Saturday, September 9, 2023

5) String Quartet no. 14: The 14th Amendment
6) MLK Jr. Birmingham Letter
7) Monk, The Thelonious
8) Lake Biwa – A Full Moon Purewater Gold
9) Miriam Makeba
10) That Sunday Morning

Sunday, September 10, 2023

11) String Quartet no. 15: The 15th Amendment
12) Lorraine Vivian Hansberry
13) Mercy 2: A Cantata
14) Mrs. Till and Emmett Till

Monday, September 11, 2023

15) Ceremony and Remembrance of the 9/11 Victims
16) String Quartet no. 16: Flight 93
17) Earth… Asian American Culture
18) JFK in Dallas: Parkland