The New Generation Project

Preserving a Musical Heritage

The arranged spiritual and African American poetry set to music are iconic in the world of classical music. These songs send messages that are significant today and that speak to experiences embraced by all communities. This music holds historical, cultural, sociological and developmental meaning. These powerful pieces speak of life and death, suffering and sorrow, love and judgment, grace and hope, justice and mercy. Astonishingly, they also usher in quietude and peace, counsel steadfastness and faith, and inspire joy and celebration. The words found in the poetry shift one from the past to the present. They oppose the injustice of racism and lobby for a harmonious society where human equality is achieved under the sovereignty of God.

- Father Rudolph Cleare
Development Director, Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation

In an effort to preserve America’s true folk music--the arranged spiritual--and to encourage an examination of the words of African American poets in art song settings, internationally renowned sopranos Marquita Lister and Louise Toppin have created The Art Songs of African American Poets and Arranged Negro Spiritual for a New Generation Project. This multi-pronged project focuses on the work of multicultural composers who create songs to the text of African American poets and composers who create of settings of either reimagined or new settings of spirituals. In collaboration with the composers/arrangers and poets, Louise Toppin and I hope to give further evolution to the spiritual and art song by showing the relevance of these forms today.

The New Generation Project consists of performances, research and documentation. In the performance phase and research phase, we have commissioned two types of compositions: (1) Solo and duet arrangements (traditional and contemporary) of spirituals, (2) Solo and duet arrangements of art songs (historic and contemporary poetry, slave narratives, etc.). We have already performed commissioned works in all of these categories by composers such as Michael Ching, Mark Taggart, Richard Thompson, Roland Carter, William Banfield, Malcolm Solomon, Joyce Moorman, Uzee Brown, Jacqueline Hairston, and Leslie Adams, to name a few.

The entire collection of songs and duets is an homage to African American culture, African American and multicultural composers/arrangers, and African American and multicultural poets.