Musical Offerings for Human Rights
Building awareness with the universal language of music
A series of three online events combining performances from the ensemble’s digital archives with current conversations.
Each anchored by our shared conviction that the more we explore, experience, and understand cultural differences and varying viewpoints as captured in music, the more we honor and celebrate every individual's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Works by composers Luciano Berio, Valerie Coleman, Kyle Gann, Wendell Logan, Chinary Ung, Chou Wen-chung
Bruce Adolphe, Carman Moore, Harvey Sollberger, hosts
Kyle Gann, Michael Lipsey, David Rakowski, David Sanford, Whitney Slaten, Chinary Ung, speakers
Patricia Spencer, curator
Streamed as YouTubePremieres
CLICK HERE to view all three events in this series
David Rakowski
Luciano Berio
Wendell Logan
David Sanford
Carman Moore
Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 7 pm EDT
Hearing the African-American Experience
Wendell Logan’s Runagate, Runagate, a musical embodiment of the spirit and determination to be free, and Berio’s tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., O King
Carman Moore, host
David Sanford, David Rakowski, Da Capo's Patricia Spencer and Steven Beck, speakers
Wendell Logan – Runagate, Runagate (1989)
Robert Mack, tenor soloist | Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute and piccolo | Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet and bass clarinet | Christopher Oldfather, guest piano | Michael Lipsey, guest percussion | Marcus Parris, conductor
Performance from: February 12, 2020 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NYC
Luciano Berio – O King (1968)
Lucy Shelton, soprano | Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute | Meighan Stoops, clarinet | Steven Beck, piano
Performance from: May 1, 2017 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NYC
CLICK HERE to view this YouTubePremiere
Program PDF available HERE
Chinury Ung
Chou Wen-chung
Michael Lipsey
Harvey Sollberger
Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 7 pm EDT
Asian Echoes
Chinary Ung’s Child Song, delighting in and preserving Cambodian song in a time when it was forbidden, plus Chou Wen-chung’s Ode to Eternal Pine, a musical reflection of the Chinese terms “tian di ren – heaven, earth, and humanity”
Harvey Sollberger, host
Chinary Ung, Michael Lipsey, members of Da Capo Chamber Players, speakers
Chinary Ung – Child Song (1985)
Patricia Spencer, flute | Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Steven Beck, piano
Performance from: June 5, 2019 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NYC
Chou Wen-chung – Ode to Eternal Pine (2009)
Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute | Nuno Antunes, guest clarinet | Steven Beck, piano | Michael Lipsey, guest percussion
Performance from: June 5, 2019 at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, NTC
Lia Di Stefano, images | Andrés León, video
CLICK HERE to view this YouTubePremiere
Program PDF available HERE
Valerie Coleman
Whitney Slaten
Bruce Adolphe
Kyle Gann
Tuesday, June 22, 2021, 7 pm EDT
Paean To Merging Cultures
Exploring sounds of Native American history — merged with African American history in Valerie Coleman’s Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes — and as memorialized in Kyle Gann's Hovenweep.
Bruce Adolphe, host
Kyle Gann, Whitney Slaten, Curtis Macomber, Patricia Spencer, speakers
Valerie Coleman – Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes (2014)
Curtis Macomber violin | Chris Gross cello | Patricia Spencer flute | Marianne Gythfeldt clarinet | Steven Beck piano
Performance pre-recorded for August 13, 2021 virtual National Flute Association Convention. Recorded on June 11, 2021, Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY, by Judith Sherman and Charles Mueller.
Kyle Gann – Hovenweep (2000)\
Curtis Macomber, violin | Chris Gross, cello | Patricia Spencer, flute | Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet | Margaret Kampmeier, guest piano
Performance from: March 10, 2020 at The László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Performance Space, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
CLICK HERE to view this YouTube Premiere
Program PDF available HERE
Hovenweep is an ancient, highly developed, and well-preserved village on the Utah-Colorado border, occupied by the Anasazi from 500 BC to 1300. The Anasazi (the “Ancient Ones”) are thought to be ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians.
Consultants for
Musical Offerings for Human Rights
Amy Roberts Frawley, producer
Hemsing Associates, public relations
Andrés León, technical director
Lia Di Stefano, graphic designer
Sarah Elia, social media
Background music: Petroushkates (1980) by Joan Tower, founding pianist of Da Capo Chamber Players, commissioned by the ensemble in honor of its 10th anniversary – performance by Da Capo Chamber Players at Bard College, September 10, 2014
The concerts of the Da Capo Chamber Players are made possible in part with public funds from:
National Endowment for the Arts
which believes that a great nation deserves great art
They are also made possible with private funds from:
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music
The Alice M. Ditson Fund
The Amphion Foundation
Hulbert Charitable Trust
Zethus Fund
and generous individuals
This series is dedicated to the memory of Bernard Hulbert, MD