John Hope Franklin at 100
Imani Winds featuring The Fisk Jubilee Singers

Thursday, October 29, 2015 | 8:00 pm

Imani Winds, a quintet lauded as “strikingly virtuosic and immaculately tight” by the Boston Music Intelligencer, come to Baldwin Auditorium as part of a University-wide celebration of historian John Hope Franklin’s centenary. Dr. Franklin, a Duke professor and author of the authoritative African American history From Slavery to Freedom, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in his lifetime and chaired President Clinton’s Advisory Board for the Initiative on Race.

The program is anchored by American composer Frederic Rzweski’s Sometimes, a Duke Performances-commissioned world premiere, based on the melodies of spirituals and dedicated Franklin’s memory. The evening is further enriched by a collaboration between Imani Winds and GRAMMY Hall of Fame inductees the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a sixteen-voice a cappella ensemble in continuous operation since 1871 at Dr. Franklin’s alma mater, Fisk University. This will be a unique musical celebration dedicated to the life and legacy of a brilliant scholar and activist and a pillar of the Duke community.
Traditional, arr. Roland Carter: In Bright Mansions Above
Traditional, arr. Noah F. Ryder: My Lord Is So High
Traditional, arr. R. Nathaniel Dett: Listen to the Lambs
Enoch Manyaki Sontonga arr. Valerie Coleman: Nkosi si ke Leli
Frederic Rzewski: Sometimes (world premiere DP commission, dedicated to the memory of John Hope Franklin)
Derek Bermel: Wanderings
Valerie Coleman: speech. and canzone
Traditional, arr. Jeff Scott: Mr. Banjo, There is a Balm in Gilead, Rockin’ Jerusalem
Made possible, in part, with an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; a grant from South Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment from the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council; the Office of the President of Duke University; and the John Hope Franklin Centenary Committee.