(im)migration: music of change
Imani Winds join forces with the Catalyst Quartet for an absorbing program highlighting the experience of migration. (im)migration: music of change features music written or inspired by migrants and immigrants from the African and Latin diaspora. Performing both individually and together, the ensembles transform ancestral stories into music.
The ensembles join together for a performance of Concierto de Cámara by American Roberto Sierra and Sergeant McCauley, by Jessie Montgomery that tracks the journey of her great-grandfather during the Great Migration.
Sergeant McCauley is inspired by personal family stories of the African American Great Migration during the early 1900s, around the time of World War I, from the lens of her great-grandfather. It strings together spirituals and works songs that reflect Sergeant McCauley’s route from Mississippi to the west, then up north, and eventually back to Georgia. The special timbral effects of this mix of strings and winds transforms the stories and their reflections into music. Montgomery carries on the storytelling tradition passed on by her mother, playwright, actor, and teacher Robbie McCauley.