Colour of Music Festival Inc., the nation’s largest black classical music organization based in Charleston, SC, highlights talented classical composers and performers of African descent. The organization is delighted to announce its return to the North Charleston Arts Fest on Thursday, May 2, 2024, at 7 p.m., hosted at the Eternal Father of the Sea Chapel (located on the former Charleston Naval Base) at 1096 Navy Way, North Charleston, SC.
- Free and open to the public, but online registration is required due to limited space. Use the promo code NCHS2024 at https://www.colourofmusic.org/event/nchs-5-2-24.
The event will showcase works by three renowned Black composers, including the local legend Edmund Thornton Jenkins, known as the father of Black classical music in the low country. The night will commence with the premiere of Jenkins’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, featuring violinist Anyango Yarbo-Davenport and pianist Elizabeth G. Hill. This never-before-performed piece for violin and piano was edited and arranged by Jenkins’s great-nephew, Tuffus Zimbabwe, who is the keyboardist for Saturday Night Live. The program will also include compositions 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.
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