I Dream a World: Symphonic Persuasion

Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 7:30 PM; Sunday, February 5, 2023 at 2:00 PM | New World Center, Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall

• William Eddins, conductor
• Tammy Kernodle, festival curator, musicologist and host
• Louise Toppin, soprano

Don’t miss this: Take a deep dive into the music that inspired, or was inspired by, the Jazz Age. Conductor William Eddins, one of NWS’s very first Piano Fellows, returns to NWS to lead Fellows in music by Scott Joplin, Maurice Ravel and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. These concerts will be hosted by Festival curator, Dr. Tammy Kernodle and feature soprano Louise Toppin. Buy Tickets

SATURDAY PRE-CONCERT CHAT AT 6:15 PM:  The Saturday, February 4 performance will be preceded by a discussion on African American perspectives on Europe during the Renaissance era hosted by Shawn Anthony Christian, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of English, Florida International University and Nathaniel Cadle, Associate Professor of English at Florida International University, joined by NWS Fellows. The chat will begin at 6:15 PM. There will not be a pre-concert chat on Sunday, February 5.

This concert is part of the I Dream a World festival. Click here for a full listing of festival events.

I Dream a World: The Harlem Renaissance in Europe

Picture this: It’s 1938, Paris. You’re at Chez Bricktop, the glamourous nightclub where café society rubs shoulders with the likes of Josephine Baker, Cole Porter and Ernest Hemingway. A woman takes the stage, and she starts to sing… 

This year’s I Dream a World festival takes us on a tour through interwar Europe to meet the Black musicians who transformed art and culture on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the course of two weeks, join New World Symphony for a closer look at the pivotal moment in music that went on to shape early jazz and inspire composers like Ravel and Stravinsky.