The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance will present Emancipation, by gay composer Adrian Dunn, with The Adrian Dunn Singers and Rize Orchestra on the Mainstage on Friday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m.
Emancipation is the second installment in the trilogy cycle composed by Dunn exploring Black life in this country, through genres created by Black Americans. The program will be performed by The Adrian Dunn Singers and Rize Orchestra, all-Black professional ensembles founded by Dunn and dedicated to transforming classical music and the music industry at large.
This performance of Emancipation marks the first time that an all-Black professional orchestra has played at the Harris Theater. This historic moment will be filmed and recorded for a live album.
What does it mean to be Black and free in the United States in the 21st century? Emancipation seeks the answers to that question through an exploration of love, loss, queerness, Black liberation and the human experience.
Dunn said in a statement, “As a classically trained musician, there were things in my childhood that I was forced to discard about my musical upbringing and identity. Emancipation is me going back and getting all of those things and bringing them to the concert stage. My inspiration for this piece includes Black sacred texts of Maya Angelou, Kanye West, Tupac, Marlon Riggs, James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, to name a few.”
Tickets are $20- $140 each; visit harristheaterchicago.org/performance/emancipation-adrian-dunn, call 312-334-7777 or email info@harristheaterchicago.org.