Making America: Requiem for America
About the Event
The BBC Symphony Orchestra presents Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People — Brent Michael Davids’s searing work which confronts hard truths about America’s founding.
Mohican/Munsee-Lenape composer Brent Michael Davids’s Requiem pairs Indigenous letters with founding-era genocidal texts to lay bare, state by state, the dark foundations of the United States of America. A contralto narrator embodying the Earth guides us along a deeply moving musical arc, from the colonial “Doctrine of Discovery” to a final Threnoedia. Conducted by Teddy Abrams, Davids’s monumental work features the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, an ensemble of Native American singers and Davids himself, on Native American flute. This landmark world premiere is more than a concert - it’s a reckoning, a remembrance, and a call to truth through music.
Pre-concert talk
Fountain Room, 6.15pm
The co-directors of the Lenape Center, New York – Joe Baker, Curtis Zunigha and Brent Michael Davids – discuss the historic and cultural context of Brent Michael Davids’s Requiem for America, reflecting on the past and present of America’s Indigenous peoples.
Admission free. Limited capacity - admission on a first-come, first-served basis.
Content warning
Requiem for America includes descriptions of highly distressing historical scenes, in language of the time.
Change of artist
Jennifer Johnston, the advertised contralto/narrator, has had to withdraw from this performance owing to illness. The BBC Symphony Orchestra is grateful to Wallis Giunta for taking her place at short notice.
Programme
Brent Michael Davids Requiem for America (World Premiere)
Performers
Teddy Abrams conductor
Brent Michael Davids Native American flute
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
Wallis Giunta contralto, narrator
Janai Brugger soprano
Anne Marie Stanley alto
Robert Murray tenor
Eric Greene baritone
Native chorus
Nitaa-Nagamokwe leader
Miskwanangikwe
Bidaabinokwe
Zhaashaawanibiisikwe
Kaakaakidid
Minisinoogwan
Giniw
Yahto Mahpee