And color my world Black Gold

September 23, 2016 3:02 AM

Violist and impresario Ashleigh Gordon talks to the Boston Globe about the problem she and her multimedia project Castle of our Skins had when they set out to perform works by black composers: “we could list on maybe one hand, between us, black composers that we knew of.”

At the African-American Meeting House on Beacon Hill on June 7, the third season of the Castle of our Skins project wrapped up with Freedom Rising, a tour through the history of black confinement in America, from slavery to Attica to mass incarceration and beyond. The modern music accompanied narration that included poetry and letters from inmates throughout American history. Gordon and COOS co-founder Anthony Green are interviewed about the concert here.

Gordon's experimental string trio Sound Energy will perform Jeffrey Mumford's a veil of liquid diamonds this weekend to start the fourth season of Castle of our Skins.

posted by Fritz Langwedge (2 comments total)

I'm so happy to see this on MeFi. Castle of Our Skin is a great project. I once performed in a piece by Anthony Green, which was a lot of fun. His pieces are always beautifully surprising. He's a friend, but I would think he's a wonderful composer even if I didn't know him.
posted by Kattullus at 4:05 AM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

For the record, I knew Ashleigh a few years ago when she gave me beginning viola lessons. She is an all-around awesome person.
posted by Melismata at 7:12 AM on September 23, 2016 [2 favorites]