Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC) is thrilled to announce its annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute Concert featuring more than 250 BCC voices will return this year to Boston Symphony Hall.
The concert, “Can You See the Stars?”, was originally scheduled for MLK Day 2022, but was moved to March 27, 2022, at 4 p.m. in accordance with local COVID recommendations for indoor gatherings. On March 27th the community gathers again in-person for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic
Through song, BCC highlights the week leading up to the assassination of Dr. King as he marched arm in arm with the sanitation workers in Memphis on strike against the city for unsafe working conditions. Dr. King’s work for labor and civil rights paved the way for the activism that is embodied in the modern-day environmental movement. BCC’s singers take the stage and shine a light on how equity and justice are critical to the future of our environment.
This year’s program will feature community leaders and soloists including:
• Reverend William Bodrick is the Senior Pastor of the Historic Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. Rev. Bodrick leads with dynamic preaching and gospel-driven social engagement.
• Renese King is a nationally recognized instrumentalist, choral director and arranger whose musical talents have taken her from gospel singing at the church podium to timpani playing on the Carnegie Hall stage. She brings her commitment to unifying and uplifting the community to BCC.
• Alysia Lee is a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist and Founder and Artistic Director of Sister Cities Girlchoir, the El Sistema-inspired, girl empowerment choral academy in Philadelphia, Camden, and Baltimore in its tenth season. She is also a policymaker for the Maryland State Department of Education across five arts disciplines: music, dance, visual art, theatre, and media arts. Alysia is the series editor of Hal Leonard’s Exigence for Young Voices, the new choral series uplifting Black and Latino composers for young choir ensembles.
Climate justice is the central theme of all BCC’s 2021-22 programming. As part of this year’s programming, BCC singers took the stage back in the Fall for WILD: A Musical Becoming featuring Tony Award-winning performer Idina Menzel and actress YDE. BCC is simultaneously gearing up for the second season of Opus Nuovo, a project that commissions new work from composers of color revolving around a theme that resonates with BCC’s youth singers. This year’s theme, “Now Is the Time,” features music focusing on the climate emergency.
More information about the event and tickets can be found at: https://www.bostonchildrenschorus.org/hear-us/19th-annual-dr.-martin-luther-king-jr.-tribute-concert-can-you-see-the-stars/.