Choir Concert: Songs of Diversity, Inclusion, Acceptance and Belonging

Join us for an uplifting evening of vocal music, free of charge.

Tonight’s concert, Songs of Diversity, Inclusion, Acceptance and Belonging: Chapter Two, begins with a festival welcome, featuring three South African folksongs arranged by Michael Barrett—San’bonani (IsiZulu), Namhla Kudibene (IsiXhosa) and Nda Wana (Venda).

The core of the program celebrates the faithfulness of Virgin Mary and her jubilant encounter with the angels, featured in both Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Magnificat and Paul Basler’s Gloria from Missa Kenya. The former is in traditional Baroque style in Roman Catholic liturgy in six movements, and the latter is contemporary a cappella accompanied by African drums and body percussion.

The second half of the program includes two major themes—Acceptance and Inclusion, and Social Justice and Belonging.

For the first theme, Concert Choir will perform

• Brian Tate’s Nobody Gets Left Behind,
• Roger Emerson’s arrangement of Over the Rainbow,
• Andy Beck’s arrangement of Mars’ Count on Me
• Together Now by Quentin Angus
• We Are Everywhere by Can Olgun

For the second theme of Social Justice and Belonging, Downtown Chorus and College Chorus will perform

• David Moore’s arrangement of Will the Circle Be Unbroken
• Mark Hayes’s Make Them Hear You
• Rollo Dilworth’s Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around
• Mark Brymer’s We Belong
• Robert Edgerton’s arrangement of Sondheim and Bernstein’s Somewhere

These concerts Songs of Diversity, Inclusion, Acceptance and Belonging (Chapters One and Two) are part of the Diversifying CUNY’s Leadership: A CUNY-Harvard Consortium (2019-2020) program, which aims to cultivate a diverse group of future leaders, and supports and celebrates CUNY’s commitment to a diverse community that is inclusive of all groups and individuals. This year, the BMCC music program has taken the leadership role in bringing more diverse sounds onto our campus and CUNY at large.

For more information, contact the Department of Music and Art at (212) 776-7240

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