Core Ensemble to present ‘Vignettes of Harlem Renaissance’

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

“Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance,” featuring a marriage of theatrical narrative to chamber music performance, will be presented at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 14, in the Rowe Recital Hall.

For this free public event, hosted by the Council on University Community, the Core Ensemble will employ “Chamber Music Theatre,” a unique performance format in which an actor portrays multiple characters while interacting with the onstage musical trio of cello, piano and percussion.

Dracyn Blount will celebrate the music and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance era in New York City for the Feb. 14 performance. “Of Ebony Embers” will examine the lives of three outstanding but very different African American poets, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay, as seen through the eyes of the great painter and muralist Aaron Douglas. 

The musical score will include works by jazz artists Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk and Charles Mingus, as well as concert music by Jeffrey Mumford and George Walker.

Since its founding in 1993, the Core Ensemble has been acclaimed for the development of a new genre of chamber music theatre works, as well as a long history of commissioning and performing contemporary chamber music. The ensemble has toured nationally to every region of the United States and internationally to England, Russia, the Ukraine, Australia and the British Virgin Islands.

While admission is free for this event, reservations are encouraged. Email boxoffice@uncc.edu.