Two Black Churches: Okpebholo World Premiere by Watkins, M., Okpebholo, Saint-Saëns, Od (2024/2024), Dirigent Mélisse Brunet, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington, United States

LexPhil’s powerful season finale opens with Soul of Remembrance, the second movement of composer and pianist Mary D. Watkins’ Five Movements in Color for full orchestra. Watkins describes Soul of Remembrance as “the collective moan of a profound grief felt by the newly-arrived Africans, who found themselves in a strange land, dealing with the loss of the only life they had known and leaving behind the comforts of family and friends.” A highlight of the season, LexPhil will present the world premiere of Composer-in-Residence Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches, a LexPhil co-commissioned arrangement for full orchestra featuring acclaimed baritone Will Liverman. This poignant work, originally scored for piano and baritone and commissioned by Will Liverman, reflects on the racist attacks on the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, and the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. The season concludes with Saint-Saëns triumphant Symphony No. 3, known as the “Organ Symphony,” featuring the resonant power of Singletary Center’s pipe organ.