This event ended on: Oct 30, 2021

Primal Message

with the NAC Orchestra

Music Classical music

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  • NAC Orchestra

  Oct 30, 2021 - 8 PM EDT   90 minutes with no intermission.

Nokuthula Ngwenyama Primal Message Florence B. Price Piano Concerto in One Movement WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543

Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s Primal Message is a tender, truly primal work inspired by the idea of sharing the things we reveal to each other—our intelligence, our emotions, our goodness. This powerful piece trades melody between voices to create a beautiful meditation on communication. 

Florence Price (1887-1953) was an African-American composer whose work was performed widely during her lifetime and then neglected until recent re-discovery and championing by musicians worldwide. Her work is infused with her experience as a Black woman in the post-Civil War American south. Shortly after the concerto’s premiere in 1934, the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph called it “real American music…. Mrs. Price is speaking a language that she knows.” This warm and nostalgic concerto comes to life in the hands of American pianist Michelle Cann, a champion of Price’s work who makes her NAC debut. 

Despite the personal struggles Mozart was facing at the time he wrote his Symphony No. 39—near penury, waning popularity, and the death of his only daughter—this majestic and vibrant symphony, the first of three (his last) written in rapid succession, is Mozart at his best.

Artists

  • bio-orchestra
    Featuring NAC Orchestra
  • 229-xian-zhang-credit-b-ealovega
    Conductor Xian Zhang
  • 4-michelle-cann-headshot-credit-steven-mareazi-willis-2
    Piano Michelle Cann
  • 1c4930-20180620-violist-nokuthula-ngwenyama-credit-mark-morgan
    Composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama
  • 2018-02-01-04-16-12-pmrs78189-florence-price-2-scr
    Composer Florence B. Price
  • wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-1-wikicommons
    Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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