Commission 2022-2023 Announcement
September 10, 2022-Grace Chorale of Brooklyn, as part of its commitment to commissioning and premiering new works, is thrilled to announce that Nicole Russell has been awarded our latest choral commission to be premiered at our spring 2023 concert: We Will Rise: Music of Resilience, Justice and Hope. The commission will be performed in dialogue with two seminal works by female composers. The first work by Fanny Mendelsson, Oratorium nach Bildern der Bibel (“Scenes from the Bible”), was composed in 1831 in response to the cholera pandemic, and the second work, Credo, by the African-American composer, Margaret Bonds, draws on the opening text from civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois’ Darkwater: Voices Within the Veil, which highlights the conflict between white and Black workers.
Nicole Russell is a Brooklyn based composer, pianist, vocalist, teacher, and producer. Her work is exploratory and harmonically adventurous, and is often inspired by nature, mental health, gender issues and race. She is originally from Austin, Texas. “I have always appreciated the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. One work that has been in the back of my head for a while is the poem The Black Finger by Angelina Weld Grimké. It's such a short poem, but a powerful message of resilience and perseverance in the Black community. The composers on this program are personal favorites of mine. I would like to use this poem by Grimké and combine it with poetry of contemporary Black poets to create a strong work that displays this resilience of the Black community throughout all our history,” says Nicole.
About Nicole Russell:
Nicole was named a recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work was featured on the Calliope’s Call “Sounds of Unity” program and the 2019 Women in Music Festival on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women. She was also a selected student composer for the 2019 CISUM Percussion Workshop in New York City, and has had works performed by Transient Canvas, Hypercube, and the JACK quartet.
Nicole completed her bachelor’s degree in Music Composition at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and received her master’s in Music Theory and Composition at New York University. Her past teachers include, Julia Wolfe, Joan La Barbara, Morton Subotnick, Ethan Wickman, James Syler, and Andrew Lloyd. To learn more about Nicole Russell, visit nicolerussellmusic.com.
About Grace Chorale of Brooklyn:
Grace Chorale of Brooklyn is an 85-member community chorus based in Brooklyn. Under the baton of music director Jason Asbury, the Chorale is committed to serving the wider Brooklyn community by presenting various traditions of choral music.
The mission of Grace Chorale of Brooklyn is to promote and cultivate the art of choral singing in Brooklyn by:
Presenting a wide variety of choral music, including newly commissioned works, to audiences through concerts, partnerships and educational outreach
Offering amateur singers the opportunity to study the art of choral singing under dynamic and professional leadership
Engaging public support for these endeavors
To learn more about the Grace Chorale of Brooklyn, visit gracechorale.org