Honor Juneteenth with “The Wanderer’s Tethering”

Welcome to CODA! Coda comes from the Latin word for “tail,” and in music, it indicates an additional passage at the end of a piece of music, a final flourish that compliments what’s come before. CODA goes beyond the curtain call to explore this unique and astonishing art form. Whether you’re a first-time opera-goer or a seasoned audience member, CODA is for you. Biweekly, we’ll enhance your experience of opera with behind-the-scenes highlights, educational articles, listening lists, and much, much more!?

June 19th marks Juneteenth, when the United States commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. On June 19, 1865, nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln emancipated enslaved Africans in America, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas with news of freedom. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state were free by executive decree.

While Juneteenth has been celebrated by African Americans since the late 1800s, this monumental event was largely unknown to many Americans until 2020.? In 2021, President Biden signed bipartisan legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday.?

This year, BLO is proud to premiere a new work in conjunction with Juneteenth celebrations, The Wanderer’s Tethering . Commissioned by BLO, The Wanderer’s Tethering pairs Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola with Boston-based composer Mason Bynes . The concert program, curated by BLO Artistic Advisor Vimbayi Kaziboni in collaboration with Castle of Our Skins , also includes musical selections by Trevor Weston , Jessie Montgomery , and Florence Price . This performance features Porsha Olayiwola, musicians from Castle of Our Skins, and BLO Jane & Steven Akin Emerging Artist Brianna J. Robinson .

We are so proud to partner with Castle of Our Skins and Hibernian Hall for this special event! Attendees may pay what they wish upon entry. In collaboration with Hibernian Hall, a portion of the proceeds will go to The League of Women for Community Service .?

The story of The Wanderer’s Tethering

Olayiwola and Bynes’s music-and-spoken-word composition follows the story of Tobi, a contemporary descendant of the Nigerian community known as Igbos, whose members were captured from West Africa and forced onto boats that brought them to the shore of modern-day Georgia. Upon landing, when the Igbos recognized they were to become enslaved in America, the community led a revolt on the Wanderer ship. After initial success fighting their captors and escaping, the group members submerged themselves into Georgia’s Dunbar Creek and committed mass suicide rather than live in captivity.

In a series of songs and sung/spoken pieces, The Wanderer’s Tethering traverses issues of identity, ancestry, language, faith and perseverance, incorporating elements of folkloric music as well as a historic recounting of the Igbo revolution.?

About the artists

Porsha Olayiwola is a native of Chicago who writes, lives and loves in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses Afrofuturism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston and the author of i shimmer sometimes, too . Her work can be found in or forthcoming from with TriQuarterly Magazine, Black Warrior Review, The Boston Globe, Essence Magazine, Redivider, The Academy of American Poets, Netflix, Wildness Press, The Museum of Fine Arts and elsewhere.

Mason Bynes is a Boston-based composer, vocalist, and multimedia artist who strives to bridge the gap between genre and sound in order to bring listeners together. Her passion and musical curiosity has sparked a variety of commissions with various ensembles and artists, including: The Westerlies and Festival of New Trumpet Music, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, WindSync, Ex-Aequo, Boston Art Song Society, Bass Players for Black Composers, and New York’s Parlando Chamber Orchestra. Recently, her music has been featured with the North End Music and Performing Arts Center, BBC Radio 3, the International Society of Bassists, Dallas Opera, The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Fort Worth Opera, among others.

Brianna J. Robinson returned to Boston Lyric Opera in the 22/23 season as a Jane & Steven Akin Emerging Artist for her third season, where she covered the role of Mimì in La bohème and stepped into the role of Julie in the New England premiere of Omar. During her time with BLO she has performed the role of Lucy in Spears’s Fellow Travelers, and covered three principal roles in The Handmaid’s Tale. This season, Ms. Robinson will make her concert debut with several orchestras, including the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra/New World Chorale, and the Handel and Haydn Society.

Described as a conductor of “great intensity, without distancing, maneuvering, without indifference” (neuemuzikzeitung) Zimbabwean-born conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni is widely sought-after for his depth of approach and his interpretive imagination and expressivity. He has led many critically lauded performances with orchestras across the globe in Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan, performing at some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, K?ln Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Wiener Konzerthaus, Philharmonie de Paris, Sala S?o Paulo, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank Centre, and at Lincoln Center.

Castle of Our Skins is a Black arts institution dedicated to fostering cultural curiosity and celebrating Black artistry through music. In classrooms, concert halls, and beyond, Castle of our Skins invites Black heritage and culture exploration, spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of past and present.

Trevor Weston ’s music has been called a “gently syncopated marriage of intellect and feeling.” (Detroit Free Press) Weston’s honors include the George Ladd Prix de Paris from the University of California, Berkeley, the Arts and Letters Award in Music and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the MacDowell Colony and a residency with Castle of our Skins. His work has been performed by Roomful of Teeth, The Boston Children’s Chorus, The Starling Chamber Orchestra, Mallarme Chamber Players, The Providence Singers, Chicago Sinfonietta, Seraphic Fire, Ensemble Pi, The Amernet String Quartet, Trilogy: An Opera Company, and The Manhattan Choral Ensemble.

Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Some recent highlights include Shift, Change, Turn (2019) commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Coincident Dances (2018) for the Chicago Sinfonietta, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – or The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation.

Florence Price was an American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music, and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Price composed over 300 works, including four symphonies, four concertos, and a number of?choral works, art songs, chamber music and music for solo instruments. In 2009, a substantial collection of her works and papers was found in her abandoned summer home.

Join us June 18, 2023, at 4:00 PM for The Wanderer’s Tethering , a powerful evening of music you won’t soon forget. Tickets are by donation only and seating is limited, so reserve your place today!

We are proud to announce our 2023/24 mainstage season : Madama Butterfly, La Cenerentola (Cinderella), The Anonymous Lover, and Eurydice. Join us for a season that explores the power, depth, and complexity of our most human of emotions: love.

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