colour of music festival returns to north charleston arts fest
Colour of Music Festival Inc., the country’s largest Black classical music organization headquartered in Charleston, SC, showcasing gifted classical composers and performers of African descent, is proud to announce its return to the North Charleston Arts Fest Thursday, May 2, 2024, at 7 p.m. at the Eternal Father of the Sea Chapel (on the former Charleston Naval Base), 1096 Navy Way, North Charleston, SC.
Free and open to the public. Online registration is required as space is limited. https://www.colourofmusic.org/event/nchs-5-2-24 with promo code NCHS2024.
The performance features works by three noted Black composers including Charleston-born composer Edmund Thornton Jenkins, the father of Black classical music for the low country. The evening will open with the premiere of Edmund Thornton Jenkins’s Sonata for Violin and Piano featuring violinist Anyango Yarbo-Davenport and pianist Elizabeth G. Hill. His never before performed composition for violin and piano was edited and arranged by Jenkins’ great-nephew, Tuffus Zimbabwe, keyboardist for Saturday Night Live. The evening also features works by Black-British composers: Tequesta Song for Piano Quartet by Dame Shirley J. Thompson, OBE, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Piano Quintet in G minor Op. 1.
“Edmund Thornton Jenkins was an extraordinary talent whose extensive classical contributions has acquired more interest after the Black Lives Matter movement. His composition Charlestonia: A Folk Rhapsody was among the first the Festival debuted during our inaugural year (2013). We are honored to premiere another one of his compositions in the city where the historic Jenkins Orphanage is located,” said Lee Pringle, Colour of Music Festival Founder and Artistic Director.
“The City of North Charleston is very excited to welcome back our second Colour of Music performance as part of our annual North Charleston Arts Fest. Presenting this spotlight performance in such an intimate setting is a wonderful way for the North Charleston Arts Fest and the Colour of Music Festival fans to enjoy a premiere of a composition never performed anywhere, and it’s happening in the City of North Charleston!” says Kyle Lahm, North Charleston Cultural Arts Director.