A RECITAL OF ART SONG BY BLACK BRITISH & AMERICAN COMPOSERS
More details: https://www.saint-stephens.com/concerts
Gifted singer Maita Robinson returns to St Stephen’s to resume her annual concert programme with a new set of songs, this time accompanied by Stephen Kings on the piano.
Maita will perform works by British and American black classical composers reviving hidden art song gems created by Margaret Bonds, Elizabeth Boykin, Errollyn Wallen, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Florence B Price. Some of these composers have set their music to the poetry of female and black writers such as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes.
The concert programme is designed to showcase these rare and infrequently performed pieces. Maita has a keen interest in bringing forward overlooked and/or suppressed composers, with their unique blending of music and poetry. She recognises the central role the poetry plays in the listeners’ enjoyment of art songs and the programme notes will reflect this by giving equal prominence to composer and poet
The prominence of Bristol’s ancient harbourside church of St Stephen’s provides a backdrop to this recital programme. As a place of worship for the mariners of Bristol, some of whom would have been involved in the slave trade and, within a stone’s throw the now empty plinth of the toppled Colston statue, this historic building is a fitting venue for Maita’s recital.
