PERFORMED BY THE GOLDEN QUARTET AND SOUTHWEST CHAMBER MUSIC, JEFF VON DER SCHMIDT, CONDUCTOR
World premiere commission by Southwest Chamber Music
An epic journey performed over the course of three concerts, this major new opus by creative music luminary Wadada Leo Smith draws upon, and interprets, key events in the history of the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 through 1964. Ten Freedom Summers takes listeners on a probing journey of immense musical, psychological and spiritual scope—with social and historical resonances that reach well beyond the epochal struggles for African American civil rights in the 1950s and ’60s. Performing this landmark multimovement work are the riveting Golden Quartet—featuring Smith (composer,
trumpet), Susie Ibarra (drums), Angelica Sanchez (piano) and John Lindberg (bass)—and Southwest Chamber Music under the direction of Grammy Award-winning conductor Jeff von der Schmidt.