Lawrence Brownlee Comes to Carnegie
Rising, Poems by Harlem Renaissance Poets Set to Music
By: Susan Hall - Mar 17, 2023
Lawrence Brownlee is inarguably one of the most beautiful bel canto voices ever. Before George Floyd and the recent activism on behalf of Black peoples, he developed a song cycle, Cycles of my Being, to help others understand the feelings of Black men, the most challenged group in America.
In 2015, he created the role of Charlie Parker in Charlie Parker's Yardbird, an opera by Swiss-American composer Daniel Schnyder and co-commissioned by Opera Philadelphia. It is about America, its music, and racial inequality.
Now Brownlee is touring with Rising, a concert in which the poems of Harlem Renaissance writers are set to music by contemporary composers of color.
While Paul Robeson’s politics may have clouded his central activism on behalf of Black people, Brownlee has focused on song, and on uplift. Ever an optimist, he appeared on the opera stage with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in her opera role debut. He fearlessly tours the United States singing his message of inclusion.
He has said: "These past years have been a trial, both for humanity as a whole, and the African-American population here in the United States. But through all these many challenges we have faced, I have also seen moments of strength, inspiration, hope, and great beauty. It is those themes of uplift, elevation, and rebirth that we have tried to focus on with this new project Rising, taking poems from the giants of the Harlem Renaissance, and working with some of today’s most talented African-American composers, to create something that speaks not just to our struggles, but to our triumphsThese past years have been a trial, both for humanity as a whole, and the African-American population here in the United States. But through all these many challenges we have faced, I have also seen moments of strength, inspiration, hope, and great beauty. It is those themes of uplift, elevation, and rebirth that we have tried to focus on with this new project Rising, taking poems from the giants of the Harlem Renaissance, and working with some of today’s most talented African-American composers, to create something that speaks not just to our struggles, but to our triumphs.
On March 23, he performs the Rising program at Carnegie Hall. Tickets here.