$15 youth, $25 Senior/Student, $30 general admission
Tickets available through Eventbrite.

Join Alex Taite – singer, composer, pianist, and Bay Area native – in a lecture/recital exploring the depths and beauty of the Negro Spiritual. He presents his own arrangements of some of his favorite spirituals, jazz standards, and other exclusively American selections, and interweaves a vivid historical narrative of American culture.

This presentation explores how American music owes much of its existence to the trauma of those first enslaved people who were just trying to pass the time in the fields or lend some comfort in a dark room. An art form blending the rhythmic and emotional core from Africa with the religious and harmonic structure of the European colonizers. Born from burdens. Tempered by tragedy.

From the muck of kidnapping, oppression, indoctrination, and torture sprang forth this bloom of rich, uplifting, hopeful music. Music that evolved as time trampled generations of humans. This lecture recital will deepen your connection to history, and to your fellow humans. Concludes with a Q & A with the artist.

Calliope is grateful to the Albany Community Foundation for a grant in support of this important event.