A Spiritual Fantasy highlights African American composers who share a connection to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and William Grant Still. Clarence Cameron White was Still’s student; his contemporary Florence Price was his neighbor in Arkansas; Frederick Tillis was born the same year audiences first heard Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony. All were greatly influenced by the Negro Spiritual, a truly unique expression of African American strength, resilience, and community. A Spiritual Fantasy explores these qualities in music, pivotal forces that inspired the Philadelphia civil rights activist whose story is told in the BSO’s later performance of The Passion of Octavius Catto.
Please note the pre-concert is at Boston Conservatory at Berklee from 6-7 pm and the BSO’s performance of The Passion of Octavius Catto is at Boston Symphony Hall at 8pm.
