Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Spring 2022 13 e NSO, WNO, and e Kennedy Center have commissioned composers and librettists from regions spanning the entire country to create works that respond to an event that has occurred in that region and also ask, "Where do we go from here?" Creating a musical map of these incidents, the commissions, which will premiere during the 50th Anniversary season, focus on the road forward on our country's racial timeline with an emphasis on the concept of "Black Dignity." Bookended by Prologue and Epilogue episodes, the project features new works by composers and librettists on topics inspired from all across the US — Oakland, CA, Aurora, CO, Atlanta, GA, and Cleveland, OH. Pieces vary in format, from operettas to string chamber ensembles, by numerous composers, including Carlos Simon, Liz Gre, and Derek Douglas Carter, among others. Episode 5 features composer Jasmine Arielle-Barnes', an SAI Kappa Xi initiate from Morgan State University, and librettist Joshua Banbury's piece e Burning Bush, performed by the Washington National Opera, with Suzannah Waddington, Daniel J. Smith, and Roderick Demmings, Jr.; it was directed by Raymond O. Caldwell. Jasmine shared the following about their work: "e Burning Bush is a ten minute opera inspired by the tragic death of Freddie Gray, one of the first few incidents that inspired the forming of the Black Lives Matter movement. is tragedy took place in 2015, but the opera takes place in Baltimore in the 1920's shortly aer the Great Baltimore Fire that took several theaters and businesses. e setting is a vaudevillian show that is having a grand reopening of some sort, and the featured Act, 'e Invisible Man.' is invisible man is later revealed to be Freddie Gray, coming back as a warning to the people of the time, specifically that audience, that if they don't change their ways of hatred, BALTIMORE will burn again for a different reason, in reference to the Baltimore Uprising of 2015, that was caused by the murder of Freddie Gray by Baltimore Police officers." e creative team was librettist Joshua Banbury and Jasmine Barnes. At the time of the Baltimore Uprising, both were living in Baltimore, attending Morgan State University. "To create this piece meant reliving that trauma, and the creative team was set on not making the audience and the performers alike relive it. is piece is somewhat of a time piece, with music craed to sound of the time." SAIs in e News Kappa Xi initiate Jasmine Barnes Kappa Xi initiate Jasmine Barnes N amed for the barrier-breaking African American contralto, the Marian Anderson Vocal Award is presented annually by the Kennedy Center and Washington National Opera (WNO) to a young American singer. This year's winner is rising star soprano Leah Hawkins. A 2018 alumna of the Cafritz Young Artists program, Hawkins has already won recognition for appearances at houses from the Bavarian State Opera to the Metropolitan Opera, where she was hailed as a "revelation" (New York magazine) when she "stopped the show" (New York Classical Review) in Porgy and Bess. As well as awarding her a cash prize and a residency at D.C.'s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, WNO looks forward to presenting the soprano in an intimate recital at the Terrace Theater on February 12, 2023. (The Kennedy Center, Press Release, April 5, 2022) Leah Hawkins, an initiate of the Kappa Xi Chapter at Morgan State, is thrilled with the announcement; she's looking forward to the recital and working with the students at Duke Ellington. "I'm extremely honored to receive the award, particularly because I am a Philadelphian like Ms. Anderson was. AND she is/was an SAI!" Hawkins Wins Marian Anderson Award

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