We Are a Family: Generations of Music by African American Composers

Presented by African American Composer Initiative

Musicians of AACI onstage at 2024 Benefit Concert, East Palo Alto, CA

Musicians of the African American Composer Initiative present their annual concert to benefit Eastside College Preparatory School. Ticket proceeds benefit this outstanding all-scholarship school.

The 2025 program reflects the multi-generational sharing of musical traditions, from spirituals and songs to concert music and jazz. Composers represented are inheritors of these traditions, as well as creative innovators: Regina Baiocchi, Margaret Bonds, Valerie Capers, Duke Ellington, Jacqueline Hairston, Joshua McGhee, Lena McLin, Zenobia Perry, John H. Robinson, Sister Sledge, William Grant Still, and Dolores White.

Performers are soprano Yolanda Rhodes, tenor Othello Jefferson, pianists/vocalists LaDoris Cordell and Deanne Tucker, pianists Josephine Gandolfi and Jansen Verplank, cellist Victoria Ehrlich, violist Paul Ehrlich, clarinetist Carol Somersille, trumpeter John Worley, saxophonist and flutist Tod Dickow, bassist Charlie Channel, and percussionist Jim Kassis.

The concert is supported in part from a Musical Grant through Intermusic SF. AACI is an affiliate with Intermusic SF.

Date:
Categories:
City: East Palo Alto
Price Range:
$5 to $20

Program Items

Regina Harris Baiocchi Cain't See to Cain't See
Dolores White 5 Spirituals arranged for viola, cello, and piano
Jacqueline Hairston Three spiritual arrangements
Joshua McGhee "Will" a musical tribute to William Grant Still
Dolores White Give Birth to the Dream, text by Maya Angelou
Zenobia Powell Perry Teeta

Performing Arts Center, Eastside College Preparatory School

Performing Arts Center, Eastside College Preparatory School

1041 Myrtle Street
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
United States