Lift Every Voice: A Celebration of Black Voices in Art Song

Michele Kennedy, Soprano and Henry Lebedinsky, Pianist will perform at Gualala Arts on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 4pm. 

Tickets are $40 in advance, +$5 day of and are available at Gualala Arts, the Dolphin Gallery and online at EventBrite.com

Praised as “an excellent and impassioned” soprano possessing “a graceful tonal clarity that is a wonder to hear” (San Francisco Chronicle), MICHELE KENNEDY is a versatile specialist in early and new music. Her recent concert venues include Carnegie Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, the Getty Museum, Lincoln Center, and Washington National Cathedral.

In high demand across the country, Michele has been a featured soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Voices of Music and The San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Handel’s Messiah with New York City’s Trinity Wall Street Choir, Poulenc’s Gloria and Messiah with The Bach Society of Saint Louis, Undine Smith Moore’s MLK Oratorio at U.C. Berkeley, and in her Carnegie Hall mainstage debut with The Hollywood Film Orchestra. Michele recently debuted with Portland Baroque Orchestra in the ‘Summer Fireworks’ of Handel and Purcell, with San Francisco Ballet in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and is soon to debut with Miami’s Seraphic Fire, Cleveland’s Les Délices, and with Washington Bach Consort in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung.

Her singing is highlighted on a new recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with The Thirteen and Dark Horse Consort, and in her solo debut album with AGAVE – called In Her Hands – showcasing an extraordinary range of female composers from over the ages, from Barbara Strozzi and Pauline Viardot to Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.

A lifelong advocate of new works, Michele has sung premieres with Experiments in Opera, Harlem Stage Opera, The Crossing Choir, and The New York Philharmonic.  This year, she is traveling with Lorelei Ensemble in a world premiere tour of Julia Wolfe’s Her Story – an outspoken celebration of women’s civil rights – in concert with the Nashville, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. She is also a member of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble: a group of early and contemporary music specialists that champions the voices of women and artists of color on the stage.

Michele completed her musical studies at Yale University, Yale School of Music, and New York University. A lover of redwood groves and bay vistas, she lives in Oakland with her husband, visual artist Benjamin Thorpe, and their daughter, Audra May. Please find more at www.michele-kennedy.com, and thanks for visiting!

Program:
Out of the South
Florence Price – Out of the South

Florence Price, Piano Solo – Down a Southern Lane

Harry Burleigh – Swing Low

Harry Burleigh – From the Southlands: Through Moaning Pines & The Frolic
Of Faith and Perseverance
Hall Johnson – My Lord, what a Morning

Florence Price – Resignation

Florence Price, Piano Solo – Adoration

Margaret Bonds – Lord, I Just Can’t Keep from Cryin’

Harry Burleigh – On Bended Knee & A New Hiding Place
On the Horizon
Margaret Bonds – Hold On

Harry Burleigh – In the Col’ Moonlight

Florence Price – Sunset

Florence Price – A Southern Sky

Moses Hogan – In Her Hands

Margaret Bonds – Hold On