Founding Mothers

Local activist orchestra PROTESTRA will present a concert on Saturday, June 27 at 2 PM at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church (263 W. 86th St.). Titled “Founding Mothers,” the program will feature works by contemporary and historic American women composers.

This concert is produced in partnership with the American Composers Forum as part of the multi-year Recomposing America initiative and will feature newly commissioned works by two women composers living and working in NYC. Timed with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Recomposing America aims to refresh and reimagine the “who,” “what,” and “why” of the United States and the stories therein. The new orchestral works will highlight the concepts of girlhood and womanhood as they relate to the history and future of America.

The concert opens with the premiere of Matriarch by PROTESTRA Associate Conductor Danielle Jagelski, written in honor of the knowledge systems created and sustained by the enduring wisdom of indigenous female leadership. The second premiere, JL Marlor’s YELLFIRE, features voice and electric guitar alongside the orchestra and explores female rage becoming a force of transformation. The program closes with Florence Price’s Symphony No. 4, the final symphony composed by the first African-American woman to have her work premiered by a top American orchestra. 

Visit protestra.org for tickets ($30 general admission, $10 students) and more information. PROTESTRA will donate proceeds from ticket sales to two NYC-based charities whose work supports and uplifts women and girls: Hour Children and Girls for Gender Equity