The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival Opening Night
The Julia Perry Festival Opening Night concert, features PUBLIQuartet, soprano Laquita Mitchell, violinist Curtis Stewart, and pianist Samantha Ege. PUBLIQuartet creatively re-imagines the music of Perry, performing arrangements by members of PUBLIQuartet. The performance includes world premiere arrangements of Perry’s Prelude for Piano, Perry’s Miniature for Piano, and Stewart’s We Who Seek, which draws on Perry’s choral work Ye, Who Seek the Truth. Soprano Laquita Mitchell will perform two rediscovered songs by Perry, How Beautiful are the Feet and By the Sea. Samantha Ege performs Perry’s Miniature for Piano and Prelude for Piano.
PUBLIQuartet has been applauded by The Washington Post as “a perfect encapsulation of today’s trends in chamber music” while Laquita Mitchell was praised in The New York Times for her “smooth-voiced and soothing presence;” Samantha Ege is known for “vivid, revelatory” performances (iNews). Together they bring an innovative program of Perry’s music to Le Poisson Rouge. The evening also celebrates the release of EXO’s album American Counterpoints, which features contributions PUBLIQuartet.
Presented by Experiential Orchestra and Videmus, the Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival takes place from March 13-16 in New York City. Julia Perry was a successful and celebrated Black classical composer whose work fell into obscurity after her death in 1979; her music is now finally being revived and beginning to receive the attention it has so richly deserved. The festival celebrates Perry’s brilliance and legacy and illustrates the vibrance and importance of her music. The celebration takes place at venues across the city including Le Poisson Rouge, Mannes School of Music at The New School, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Additional presenting partners include Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts and National Concerts. WQXR is the official media partner.
