Concerts & Events: 2025 158 Views
A concert reflecting on Black History month
Saturday, 18 October 2025 - 7:30pm
Hope Metropolitan Singers, Richard Lea, Director
Pianist TBA
The contributions of Black musicians are being significantly and increasingly recognised. Last year our orchestra performed two symphonies by Joseph Bologne. Now it is the turn of our singers to present a wide-ranging concert with music spanning three continents. Some, from the United States and South Africa, is traditional. The piano pieces are by well-established Black composers, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, much admired by Elgar, and Scott Joplin who had a great influence on ragtime and jazz styles.
Programme:
Trad. Amazing Grace
Stephen Foster:
My Own Kentucky Home
Beautiful Dreamer
The Old Folks at Home
Coleridge Taylor: Two Piano Pieces
Casals:
O Vos Omnes
Nigra Sum
Trad. Zulu: Lullaby
Trad. Battle Hymn of the Republic
Trad. South African:
Siph’ Amandla
Simple Gifts
Ching-a-Ring Chaw
Trad. South African National Anthem
We also delve into songs by Stephen Foster (1826-64) who is an acknowledged pioneer of American music and was one of the first to express the spirit of the plantations with proper sensitivity. Something similar was achieved by Aaron Copland in the twentieth century in his conscious expression of American traditions.
The name of the ‘cellist Pablo Casals as composer might seem out of place. However, he both composed and conducted as well as playing. He was a virtuoso performer, giving his first public solo on the violin aged 6. He was a man of profound humanity who went into voluntary exile from his native Spain when General Franco came to power, an exile of 34 years. Always a supporter of the oppressed and marginalised he never wavered during a very long career.
Ticket Prices*
General Admission: £13.20
Liverpool Hope University current staff and students: Free
Family (2 adults plus children): £26.40
School or college students: £3.30
*Includes booking fee
