BEING BLACK
Composer Andre Myers has chosen to focus on life in his latest commission from the Albany Symphony, “Black and Alive,” which will debut on Nov. 14.
“To be black means to be closer to death,” says composer Andre Myers. “There’s not been a day in the last 15 years when I’ve not said or thought I’m not dead.”
In the midst of an American society newly sensitized to racism and the perilous condition of Black men, Myers has chosen to focus on life in his latest commission from the Albany Symphony. “Black and Alive” for chamber orchestra will be debuted in a live streamed performance on Saturday evening, Nov. 14, from Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. The virtual concert conducted by David Alan Miller will also feature Debussy’s “Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun” and a chamber version of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.
“Blackness is associated with death in European and American literature, in our cultural imagination and as of late with the public discourse,” says Myers. “Every day something has tried to kill us and failed. So what does it mean to be Black and alive? I don’t want ‘black and alive’ to be incongruous. I want Black people to live.”
Myers, 47, made his ASO debut in the June 2019 concert of the Dogs of Desire at EMPAC. Amid an overstuffed concert of new works with heavy political messages, Myers’ tribute to Frederick Douglass was a sure-footed standout. “Studies in Hope: Frederick Douglass” brought together percussive rapping by two MCS, lyrical writing for the Albany High School choir, and a turbulent deployment of the instrumental ensemble. Six months later the piece was reprised by the full orchestra. The piece’s nickname is “Good Fred.”
Working with rap wasn’t a venture into alien terrain for Myers, who recalls “After I left undergrad at Eastman, I was determined to be a rap star.” When he chuckles and adds, “I didn’t know anything,” Myers is referring more to the business side of rap rather than the musical side. The brief stint in hip-hop included one self-produced CD and some attempts at blending rap with acoustic instruments.
Within a couple of years, Myers put most of that aside and was enrolled at the prestigious composition program at the University of Michigan, earning a doctorate in 2005. A native of Ann Arbor, he currently lives in Southern California and teaches at