The Jacobs School of Music voice department held the special performance, “A Celebration of African American and African Diasporic Song,” on Tuesday in honor of Black History Month.
Performed in Auer Hall, the recital included 18 vocal students, with a range of experience levels from freshmen to doctoral students.
Associate professors of voice Michelle DeYoung and Tichina Vaughn and visiting associate professor of voice Deanne Meek organized the concert.
“Please let us thank the vocal artists who are coming together to learn and perform this beautiful repertoire and share with you in this time where I personally feel very strongly that inclusiveness in everything we do can make a difference,” Meek said during the event’s welcoming remarks.
Each vocalist performed a solo choral piece with a piano accompanist. Sophomore Elizabeth Nash began the evening with Moses Hogan’s rendition of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” which she previously performed at the “Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.” Jacobs concert on Jan. 26.
Most of Hogan’s focused on African American spirituals and the traditions that they were based on. “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” is an African American spiritual that was first published in 1927 and is now one of the best-selling gospel songs of all time.
IU junior Felicity Nolan performed “I Am in Doubt,” a piece written by Undine S. Moore, a composer known for her contributions to American art song and spirituals. Nolan was accompanied by associate instructor Min-Shu Tsai.
“I love the balance between (I Am in Doubt’s) atmospheric artistic qualities with the very raw and outpouring emotion of the text,” Nolan said.
Another performer was first year doctoral student Giovanni Malcom. Malcolm performed “Peculiar Grace” from “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” an English-language opera released in 2019 based on journalist Charles M. Blow’s 2014 memoir of the same name. The opera was composed by Terence Blanchard, who has been nominated for two Academy Awards for scores he composed for “BlacKkKlansman” (2018) and “Da 5 Bloods” (2020), both directed by Spike Lee.
“I chose this piece because it's new and I saw the opera, but it's really a story that I can relate to a lot,” Malcolm said. “Charles, the main character, who I sung, is going through a lot of emotional trauma, but it really encapsulates a lot of his internal feelings and a lot of the communities that he is a part of affecting him in a personal way, and so this is his kind of coming of age moment and realizing of all about it.”
Malcolm’s choice of the solo song extended beyond the opera’s narrative and shaped the way he approached performing it onstage.
“I really love this aria, and it was something that was super personal to me and I really just, I pour my all into it really going on stage and doing that, so I had a lot of fun,” Malcolm said.
The concert ended just like it had started, with second year master’s student Katie Copeland performing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” with her version being composed by Margaret Bonds, one of the first Black composers who gained recognition in the United States and a frequent collaborator with Langston Hughes.
After Copeland finished her performance, the concert ended in applause, with students intermingling and congratulating each other and some racing out the door to catch the last minutes of the freshmen recital down the hallway.
