Two Black Churches (2024)
Orchestration: Baritone Solo—2.2.2.BCl.2—4.2.2.Btbn.1—Timp.2 Perc—Hp—Pf(Cel)—Str
Duration: 17 minutes
Premiere: May 18, 2024, Lexington Philharmonic with conductor Mélisse Brunet, Lexington, Kentucky
A two-movement work for baritone and orchestra that reflects on two devastating acts of racial violence in sacred spaces: the 1963 bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham and the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Setting poetry by Dudley Randall (Ballad of Birmingham) and Marcus Amaker (The Rain), the piece blends Black gospel idioms, symbolic musical references, and poignant lyricism into a meditation on grief, injustice, and faith. Originally composed for baritone and piano, it was commissioned by Will Liverman and later orchestrated through a co-commission led by the Lexington Philharmonic and the Oakland Symphony.