Karen Slack + Kevin Miller: African Queens

Soprano Karen Slack is “not only one of the nation’s most celebrated sopranos, but a leading voice in changing and making spaces in classical music” (Trilloquy). The Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum joins pianist Kevin Miller for African Queens, a new project with Ravinia as its lead commissioner. Composers Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson celebrate the history and legacy of seven fierce African queens who were revered as rulers and warriors, yet not widely heralded in the West. The program will be framed by carefully selected traditional repertoire in conversation with the seven new works for voice and piano, woven together through interspersed narrative text.