Sound Off! Music for Bail

Sound Off: Music for Bail In collaboration with Groupmuse’s Planetary Music Movement and PROTESTRA, Sound Off: Music for Bail presents a hybrid program of chamber and orchestral music by leading contemporary and historical Black American composers alongside Yet Unheard, a cantata dedicated to the life and memory of Sandra Bland by Rome Prize-winning composer Dr. Courtney Bryan at Playwrights Horizons Downtown. Serving as Sound Off’s inaugural foray into the orchestral field, the concert will be led by rising conductor and 2022 Tanglewood Music Center fellow Christina Morris and feature soprano soloist and 2022 Jazz Leaders Fellow Jasmine Wilson.

Also on the program are selections from Frederick Tillis’ Spiritual Fantasy No. 12, Akua Dixon’s EFUA, and two of Wilson’s own compositions: Greener and Ruminations, both interpreted by orchestra for the first time . Nestled between musical performances, Voices of Community Leaders and Activists NY (VOCAL-NY) Director of Organizing, Jawanza James Williams, will present testimony on VOCAL-NY’s work, the progress of justice work, and its future.

Sound Off: Music for Bail is a collective of musicians, activists, and thinkers dedicated to combining music performance with educational work that envisions alternatives to the current state of policing and imprisonment in the U.S. Their online programming includes free and low-cost instrument workshops, masterclasses with expert musicians, and concerts that raise funds for cash bail across the country. Sound Off: Music for Bail’s concert programming is funded by community support and grants from the YoungArts Foundation and Abolitionist Teaching Network.

Location: Moss Theater, Playwrights Horizons Downtown (440 Lafayette Street)
Date: Sunday, February 12th, 2023 7:30pm
Cost: $25 Advance | $30 Doors
Info: https://musicforbail.com/calendar
Tickets: https://www.groupmuse.com/events/12985-courtney-bryan-s-yet-unheard-sound-off-x-pmm-x-protestra-x-vocal-ny-playwrights-horizons-downtown