Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs The Dessoff Choirs & Malcolm J. Merriweather

• Margaret Bonds (1913 - 1972): The Ballad of the Brown King:
• 1The Ballad of the Brown King: I. Of the Three Wise Men03:30
• 2The Ballad of the Brown King: II. They Brought Fine Gifts02:32
• 3The Ballad of the Brown King: III. Sing Alleluia00:45
• 4The Ballad of the Brown King: IV. Mary Had a Little Baby02:45
• 5The Ballad of the Brown King: V. Now When Jesus Was Born02:08
• 6The Ballad of the Brown King: VI. Could He Have Been an Ethiope?04:52
• 7The Ballad of the Brown King: VII. Oh, Sing of the King Who Was Tall and Brown04:12
• 8The Ballad of the Brown King: VIII. That Was a Christmas Long Ago01:24
• 9The Ballad of the Brown King: IX. Alleluia02:40
• To a Brown Girl Dead:
• 10To a Brown Girl Dead02:05
• Winter Moon:
• 11Winter Moon01:15
• Three Dream Portraits:
• 12Three Dream Portraits: I. Minstrel Man02:20
• 13Three Dream Portraits: II. Dream Variation02:38
• 14Three Dream Portraits: III. I, Too02:02
• Total Runtime35:08

Info for Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs

New York City-based The Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra, with conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather give the world-premiere recording of 20th-century African-American composer Margaret Bonds’ Christmas cantata, The Ballad of the Brown King, alongside a selection of specially arranged songs performed by baritone Merriweather with harpist and Bonds authority Ashley Jackson.

20th-century African-American composer Margaret Bonds receives long overdue recognition with the world-premiere recording of her crowning achievement, The Ballad of the Brown King. With an expressly written libretto by Bonds’ friend Langston Hughes, this Christmas cantata which focuses on Balthazar, the dark-skinned king who journeyed to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Jesus Christ, is beautifully interpreted by New York City-based The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra, outstanding soloists soprano Laquita Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford and tenor Noah Stewart, under the baton of their charismatic conductor, Malcolm J. Merriweather. Bonds authority Dr. Ashley Jackson contributes the inspired liner notes.

This unique seasonal album also includes a selection of specially arranged songs, including a setting of Hughes’ seminal poem I, Too, Sing America, performed by baritone Merriweather and Jackson on solo harp.

“This young maestro displays command as well as a terrific sense of humor, enabling him to bring out the best in all the singers.” (New York Arts)

Merriweather “compelled the audience to share the experience with him through the force of his gravity and dignified expression” (Opera News)

Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano
Noah Stewart, tenor
Malcolm J. Merriweather, baritone, conductor
Ashley Jackson, harp
The Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra

The Dessoff Choirs
under the baton of Malcolm J. Merriweather, music director, is one of the leading choruses in New York City, with an established reputation for pioneering performances of choral works from the Renaissance era through the 21st century. Since its founding in 1924, Dessoff’s mission is to enrich the lives of its audiences and members through the performance of new or rarely heard choral music. Dessoff concerts, professional collaborations, community outreach, and educational initiatives are dedicated to stimulating public interest in and appreciation of choral music as an art form that enhances the culture and life of these times.

One of the key tenets of Dessoff’s mission has been to offer rarely—performed choral music and, at the same time, provide talented singers the opportunity to sing some of the world’s finest choral masterpieces. Dessoff fulfills this twin charge by producing its own concerts each season (often with an emphasis on the music of living composers), and, as one of the top choruses in New York City, by performing with major New York and visiting orchestras. The ‘s’ in Choirs connotes the group’s various incarnations—from Dessoff’s core group of 60 singers, to the Symphonic Choir assembled for larger engagements and Chamber Choir selected to present more intimate works.

A self—governing membership organization, singing members pay dues, sell tickets, serve as board members, and provide support, financially and in—kind, to the chorus. For the past decade, Dessoff has provided opportunities for intergenerational singing for NYC public high school students through its Singing Scholar Program. Here is a full list of board members and singing members as well as information on auditions.

Malcolm J. Merriweather
is Music Director of New York City’s The Dessoff Choirs, known for their performances of great choral works from the pre-Baroque era through the 21st century. An Assistant Professor, he is Director of Choral Studies, and Voice Department Coordinator at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York; Artist in Residence at Union Theological Seminary; and Artistic Director of Voices of Haiti, a 60-member children’s choir in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, operated by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. Merriweather is also in demand as a baritone soloist, often performing throughout the eastern United States.

This past summer, Merriweather led Voices of Haiti in performances with Andrea Bocelli at Teatro del Silenzio in Lajatico, Italy, and for Pope Francis at the Vatigan. Other conducting highlights of the 2017-18 season include: David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion, Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem, Bach’s Singet dem Herrn, BWV225 and Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229, with The Dessoff Choirs; Handel’s Messiah at Brooklyn College and the Harvard Club of New York; and Leonard Bernstein’s Mass (Concert Selections) and Honegger’s King David at Brooklyn College. Recent conducting highlights have included Mozart’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Soloist engagements for the 2017-18 season include the premiere of Sanctuary Road by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec with Kent Tritle and the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall; and Fauré’s Requiem and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem with Christopher Shepard and The Masterwork Chorus.

Recent performances have included the baritone solos in Rautavaara’s Vigilia as a part of the Great Music in a Great Space series at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; the music of William Byrd with Parthenia; and Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem with the Grace Choral Society. Additionally, Merriweather has been featured as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Dessoff Choirs, the New York Choral Society, and Bach Vespers Choir and Orchestra at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City. The baritone has also premiered contemporary solo works by Eve Beglarian, John Liberatore, Ju Ri Seo, Douglas Fisk, and James Adler, and he has been a fellowship recipient at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and Tanglewood Music Center.

Merriweather holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the studio of Kent Tritle at the Manhattan School of Music, where his doctoral dissertation, Now I Walk in Beauty, Gregg Smith: A Biography and Complete Works Catalog, constituted the first complete works list for the composer and conductor. He received Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and in Vocal Performance from the studio of Rita Shane at the Eastman School of Music, as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Syracuse University, summa cum laude.

Merriweather’s professional affiliations include membership in Pi Kappa Lambda, the American Choral Directors Association, and Chorus America, and he sits on the Board of Directors of the New York Choral Consortium.

This album contains no booklet.