Performance

Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration

Following sold out engagements at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center, jazz pianist, composer, and artist Jason Moran and mezzo-soprano and composer Alicia Hall Moran will create a special rendition of their acclaimed Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration performance. Renowned author and scholar Farah Jasmine Griffin will read from her works on the Great Migration, Billie Holiday, and more, as the Morans share their own family lore, both harrowing and inspiring. Weaving together music from rhythm and blues to gospel, classical, Broadway, work songs, rock, and more, the Morans will be joined by some of the most exciting musicians working in Baltimore and beyond.

Online ticket reservations are now sold out! Walk-up seating in the BMA Auditorium is limited and will be given on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 6:25 p.m.

Schedule

6 p.m. – Doors open

6:30 p.m. – Program begins

8 p.m. – Program ends

Performers

Alicia Hall Moran

Alicia Hall Moran (co-producer and mezzo-soprano). Moran’s multi-dimensional performances encompass opera, concerts and recitals, major symphonic works, new music premieres for cutting edge composers, and Moran’s own compositions for contemporary dance, film, theater, and visual art.  As a conceptual vocal artist Moran has recorded two critically acclaimed albums: Heavy Blue and Here Today, as well as numerous self-produced touring concerts (Black Wall Streetthe motown project, and Battle of the Carmens/Breaking Ice), and diverse collaborations in new music as well as through imaginative artistic residencies at some of the nation’s foremost institutions.  Awards and fellowships include a Bessie Award for musical collaboration in ensemble with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, an NAACP Theater Award nomination for her portrayal of Bess on Broadway, the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, a Van Lier Fellowship from the Harlem School of the Arts, a Ford Foundation Art of Change fellowship, and the Inaugural Chamber Music Artist Residency at Frost School of Music at University of Miami. Her writing credits include New York Amsterdam NewsTidal Magazine, and Princeton U. Press. Major collaborations with husband Jason Moran include Bleed for Whitney Biennial, Work Songs for Venice Biennial, and Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration.

Jason Moran

Jason Moran (co-producer and pianist) is Artistic Director for Jazz at the Kennedy Center. Moran has recorded 16 solo albums, the most recent being The Sound Will Tell You. Within jazz, his multimedia tributes to Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, and James Reese Europe shifted the jazz paradigm, combining striking visuals, music, and history.   Moran was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010. He co-owns YES Records with his wife, singer and composer Alicia Hall Moran. Moran scored Ava Duvernay’s films Selma and The 13th and the HBO film adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. He is also a visual artist with paintings in the permanent collections of SFMOMA, MoMA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Moran currently teaches at the New England Conservatory.

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Farah Jasmine Griffinis the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African American Studies at Columbia University, where she also served as the inaugural Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies. Professor Griffin received her B.A. in History & Literature from Harvard and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale. She is the author or editor of eight books including Who Set You Flowin?: The African American Migration Narrative (Oxford, 1995), If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday (Free Press, 2001), and Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II (Basic Books, 2013). Griffin has collaborated on two theatrical projects for which she wrote the book. The first, “Geri Allen and Friends Celebrate the Great Jazz Women of the Apollo” premiered at the Apollo Theatre in 2013. The second, “A Conversation with Mary Lou” premiered at Harlem Stage in 2014, and was performed at The John F. Kennedy Center in 2016. Her most recent book, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature was published by W.W. Norton in September 2021. Griffin is a 2021-22 Guggenheim Fellow and Mellon Foundation Fellow in Residence.

Featuring:
Antonio Hart, saxophone
Donvonte McCoy, trumpet
Carolyn T. Brewer, piano
Terrahn Brewer, Hammond organ
Tia Allen, viola
Kris Funn, bass

with
LaNesha Alexander, vocals
Kendra Davis, vocals
William Davis, vocals
Chinedum U. Nwaobasi-McMillan, vocals
Jamie T. McMillan, vocals

Photo Credit

Photography by Thais Aquino.

The Details

Location BMA Main Campus Cost Sold Out; Walk-Up Seating Limited

Dates & Times