LISTENING TO TOM-TOM

Scholar Lucy Caplan, in partnership with AMOC, leads LISTENING TO TOM-TOM, a discussion of the 1932 opera by author, musicologist and composer Shirley Graham Du Bois. Following an introduction of excerpts from the work, Caplan and fellow panelists – including AMOC bass-baritone Davóne Tines, ethnomusicologist Fredara Hadley, and pianist Kyle Walker – will discuss the opera’s complex representations of race, gender, and history, as well as the opportunities and challenges of presenting Tom-Tom today.

**Due to unforeseen circumstances, Davóne Tines was unable to take part in this event. Baritone Jonathan R Green participated in Mr. Tines’s stead.

TICKETS / $29

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

LUCY CAPLAN

Lucy Caplan is a doctoral candidate in American Studies and African American Studies at Yale University, where she is writing a dissertation about African American performers, critics, and composers of opera during the early twentieth century. While at Yale, Lucy also earned a master’s concentration in Public Humanities, and she has held fellowships and internships at Boston Lyric Opera, the Beinecke Library, the West End Museum, and the Cambridge Historical Society. She is the recipient of the 2016 Rubin Prize for Music Criticism, and her writing has appeared in Symphony, National Sawdust Log, and The New Yorker, among others.

FREDARA HADLEY

Fredara Hadley is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at Oberlin. She received her Masters degree in Arts from Clark Atlanta University and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Indiana University. Professor Hadley is involved with the Society of Ethnomusicology, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, and Experience Music Project’s Popular Music Conference. She is also the founder of Jooksi, a company that provides music education and music-based walking tours of New York City.

KYLE WALKER

A strong advocate for social equality, critically-acclaimed pianist Kyle P. Walker believes music can speak to social issues better than verbal language can, the understanding of which he brings to both traditional Western repertoire and that of the living world-wide composers with whom he collaborates.
Highlights of this season include concerto, chamber, and solo appearances with the Colour of Music Festival, a solo recital tour throughout the East and West coast, and a Lincoln Center appearance alongside Miss America 2019. As an advocate of social justice Walker is a founding member and chamber music producer of The Dream Unfinished, an activist orchestra and collective which supports NYC-based civil rights and community organizations through concerts and presentations.This season focuses on climate justice by featuring composers from communities recently and historically impacted by climate change.

Kyle performs with the group Sanctuary Project NYC. The ensemble, composed of classically trained musicians and dancers, creates original productions through a collaborative rehearsal process, centered around structured improvisation.

His performances have been featured on media broadcasts including WQXR’s Mcgraw Hill Financial Young Artists Showcase, NPR’s Public Radio East, and UNC-TV, to name a few. Recently, he made his solo debut at New York’s Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, performed the Schumann piano concerto with the East Carolina University Symphony Orchestra, as well as presenting solo performances at Steinway Hall NYC, The Queens Museum, The Great Hall at Cooper Union, The House of the Redeemer, National Opera America, The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Birmingham Jefferson Concert Hall in Alabama, and the innovative music and multimedia venue Spectrum NYC. His festival performances include the Tibor Varga Music Festival, Switzerland, The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, NC, The Ferrara Chamber Music Festival, VA, Enso String Quartet Chamber Music Festival, CT, the Beethoven Institute, NYC and PianoFest in the Hamptons, NY.

In 2013, Mr. Walker was awarded 1st prize winner of Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition. He has also taken 1st prize in The National Talent Hunt of Omega Psi Phi, and the Greensboro Music Teachers Association Young Artist competitions. He is a frequent collaborator in new music performance projects with living composers such as Vijay Iyer, John Link, Courtney Bryan, Brian Erickson and Joan Szymko.

A dedicated teacher, Walker is on faculty of the 92nd Street Y and serves as director of piano at the Fort Lee School of . Music. He has also co-presented with The Dream Unfinished at the Carnegie Hall Music Educator Workshop, speaking about building diverse curriculums for students, to include composers that look like communities in which they serve.

Kyle Walker received his Masters of Music from Mannes College, The New School for Music under the tutelage of Thomas Sauer. He holds a bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University in addition to a special degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and has studied with Benjamin Hochman, Keiko Sekino, Henry Doskey, and Clifton Matthews. Walker has received generous support of his upcoming artistic endeavors from the Peter M. Gross Fund.