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A new virtual performance from TFO and other arts news
The Florida Orchestra has produced another video featuring dozens of musicians, each in his or her own isolation, performing as one. The new clip is a collaboration with the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay on “Daughters of Freedom,” a women’s suffrage anthem written in 1871.
The song offers a strong message of hope. “Obviously, there are a lot of differences between a 50-year struggle for the cause of women’s suffrage and the current pandemic,” associate conductor Daniel Black, who organized the virtual event, said in a prepared statement. “But one thing I find in common is the need for resilience and perseverance. This music speaks powerfully to that need.”
The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920, after decades of bitter dispute.
Black explained that he had planned on programming music connected to the suffrage movement this summer. The anniversary also had a personal meaning for the conductor.
“My great-grandmother, Emma Palmer, was a prominent suffragette in Wisconsin in the early 20th century,” Black said. “By sheer coincidence, my mother, Janet Black, who is a collage artist, had just finished a piece celebrating Emma Palmer while I was working on the orchestration for ‘Daughters of Freedom.’ I’ve used this collage in the video.
“The image of my great-grandmother, who was so formidable and determined, fills me with emotion. Though I never met her (she died almost 40 years before I was born), I can imagine what she must have been like, what her voice must have sounded like. I imagine her marching proudly, chin held high, perhaps singing ‘Daughters of Freedom’ as she went. If she could be strong then, we can be strong now.”
Arts news
Today (Monday, April 27) on The Catalyst Sessions, we’ll visit with Hank and Laura Hine, who are, respectively, the executive directors of the Dali Museum and the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art. Join us at 7 p.m. – it’s a livestream on the Catalyst Facebook page.
St. Petersburg Opera Company’s 2019 production of Puccini’s comedy Gianni Schicchi becomes available on the group’s YouTube page at 6 p.m. today, followed at 7:30 by a live discussion with artistic director Mark Sforzini on Facebook. Tuesday, same hours, it’s Puccini’s dramatic Suor Angelica, produced at the same time.
Philomena Marano, artist and former studio assistant to the late Robert Indiana, will give a virtual talk Thursday (April 30), from 6 to 7 p.m. Museum of Fine Arts Associate Curator of Public Programs Margaret Murray will join Marano for a discussion of the unique medium of paper used to create costumes and sets for the opera The Mother of Us All (1976), many of which are featured in the MFA exhibition Art of the Stage (which, of course, none of us can visit at the moment). Registration is here.
Bob Devin Jones will virtually perform his acclaimed one-man show Uncle Bends: A Home-Cooked Negro Narrative Thursday (April 30) at 7 p.m., via Facebook Live (on thestudio@620 page). The writer, actor, director and founder of thestudio@620 will be our guest on The Catalyst Sessions Tuesday (7 p.m., via Facebook Live) to discuss the show, and much more.
Detail, Robert Indiana set design
