André Raphel will lead the Minnesota Orchestra’s “Celebration of Freedom” concerts celebrating Juneteenth.
Several orchestras will present concerts and events celebrating Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of African Americans who were enslaved in Texas until 1865, two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Here is a partial listing of Juneteenth concerts and events at orchestras.
On June 17, Boston Landmarks Orchestra will open its summer season with a free Juneteenth concert at the Kroc Center in the Roxbury-Dorchester neighborhood. Music Director Christopher Wilkins will lead works by Scott Joplin, William Grant Still, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and others. Soloists include Mariana Green-Hill, violin; Sirgourney Cook, soprano; and Ade Solanke, narrator. On June 26 at the Hatch Bandshell, Boston Landmarks Orchestra will perform “Seen/Unseen: The Symphonic Legacy of Black American Women,” highlighting the symphonic legacy of Black American women and their compositions. Christopher Wilkins will conduct; performers include Terri Lyne Carrington and soprano Louise Toppin.
On June 19, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will mark Juneteenth with a “Let Freedom Ring” concert featuring selections by African American composers Florence Price and William Grant Still, plus Aaron Copland and Antonín Dvořák. MSO Associate Conductor Kyle Knox will lead the concert, which will also feature cellist Amelia Zitoun, winner of the MSO’s 2023 Bolz Young Artist Competition.
The Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts will present a free Juneteenth concert on June 19 at Springfield Symphony Hall. The concert will feature the orchestra performing with several community choruses and ensembles, among them the Springfield Symphony Chorus, the Avery Sharpe Quartet, and Springfield’s Extended Family Choir. Guest conductor Kevin Scott will lead the concert.
On June 23 and 24, conductor André Raphel will lead the Minnesota Orchestra in “Celebration of Freedom,” its first-ever concerts marking Juneteenth. Curated by Raphel, the program will feature works primarily by Black composers and will chart the sounds of struggle and freedom across generations.
On June 19, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s Princeton Festival will cap a day of events celebrating Juneteenth with a performance by vocalist Will Liverman at Morven Museum & Garden. The baritone will perform art songs set to texts by Laurence Hope, Langston Hughes, and Louise C. Wallace, with music by Black composers including Damien Sneed, Margaret Bonds, and Florence Price, with pianist Kevin Miller. Preceding the vocal recital are a community Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony and the opening of the “Beyond Freedom” art installation at Morven’s Stockton Education Center.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will present a free Juneteenth concert at Point State Park on June 19. Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling will lead and play trumpet in the concert, which will feature gospel, jazz, folk, and pop music. Dr. James T. Johnson’s trio will pay tribute to Pittsburgh jazz legend Ahmad Jamal, and rapper Frzy and the PSO will premiere a new arrangement of “What Do I Know” with Frzy’s original recording collaborator Alexandra Cutler-Fetkewicz, violin, and PSO first violin Jennifer Orchard as soloist.
