{"id":112866,"date":"2025-03-21T10:28:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=112866"},"modified":"2025-03-21T17:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T21:42:08","slug":"scrutiny-grammy-winning-soprano-karen-slack-pianist-kevin-miller-deliver-high-octane-recital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/03\/21\/scrutiny-grammy-winning-soprano-karen-slack-pianist-kevin-miller-deliver-high-octane-recital\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | GRAMMY-Winning Soprano Karen Slack & Pianist Kevin Miller Deliver High Octane Recital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Soprano
Soprano Karen Slack: African Queens (Photo: Kia Caldwell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

African Queens: Dave Ragland (b. 1978), Precatio; Carlos Simon (b.1986), Behold, The Queen; Dave Ragland, The Queen of Sheba; Jessie Nzinga Montgomery (b.1981), The Song of Nzingah; Fred Onovwerosuoke (b.1960), Luwah (Bitter Tears); Shawn Okpebholo (b.1981), A Letter From Queen Ufua, Fred Onovwerosuoke, Duniya (Mystic Universe); Jasmine Arielle Barnes (b.1991), I Am Not Your God; Will Liverman (b.1988), A Prayer; Joel Thompson (b.1988), Queen Nanny\u2019s Lullabye; Damien Geter (1980), Amanirenas. Karen Slack, soprano\u2013John R. Stratton Visitor in Music, and Kevin Miller, piano; Walter Hall, Toronto, March 20, 2025.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Soprano Karen Slack and pianist Kevin Miller\u2019s recital: African Queen, at the Walter Hall was a true exultation and celebration of Black womanhood and leadership. Focusing on the history and legacy of seven African queen figures, Slack curated the program exclusively from young living composers, including eight commissions written for her \u2014 an astounding feat to organize, and to internalize.<\/p>\n

Wielding a deep, heartfelt conviction for this program, Slack was an amazing storyteller, with excellent partnership from pianist Kevin Miller.<\/p>\n

Starting from near darkness, Miller set the mood from the piano as Slack simply began to speak- \u201c…of homage to unlocking of stories, of longing to tell new stories.\u201d Her illustrations of the queens throughout the program as \u201cmother of magic and truth,\u201d full of courage and vulnerable love, were carefully grouped, taking the pin-drop quiet audience into the lives of these queens through vibrant new works with much variety in style and harmonic language, in that distinctive American songbook style.<\/p>\n

Opening the program with the ancient text of Solomon: Nigra sum, et formosa (\u201cI am Black and beautiful\u201d), Slack started the evening with a quiet invocation within Miller\u2019s sensitive soundscape, before accelerating with gusto, as she called for Aminata, to \u201clead your women to peaceful war\u201d. Slack moved seamlessly from speech to singing, riding high on Miller\u2019s fast, energetic groove, then sinking low into the depth of one\u2019s heart, along with the beautiful resonance and calmness from the piano. Her impressive vocal range \u2014 both high and low \u2014 was full of quicksilver colour changes, with ease and generosity.<\/p>\n

At the height of her power, Slack\u2019s voice, with impeccable diction, took us from song to another. Such superb musicianship takes us away from observing \u2014 often obsessing \u2014 about the mechanics of the singing, of transforming from one song through to another. As we live in a society where dissociation of things, and consumption in small random chunks have become the norm, Slack\u2019s delivery of these stories, the weaving together of so many emotions, from joy to wrath, and the indescribable messiness of life, is truly special.<\/p>\n

African Queens<\/h3>\n

All works were beautifully crafted, with three outstanding works in particular. The first of the three, Jessie Montgomery<\/strong>\u2019s The Song of Nzingha, where Queen Nzingha\u2019s struggle between the two gods \u2014 of Christianity, and the traditional Kongolese beliefs \u2014 burned from the sparse ember speckle through a Messiaen-esque growth, where Slack\u2019s finely tuned pacing through this inhumanely long build up brought a truly dramatic and climactic end.<\/p>\n

A Letter From Queen Ufua, by Shawn Okpebholo<\/strong>, closing the first half, was quite special. Starting from the ancient blessing from the queen to her progenies with a timeless starry piano soundscape, the magic took us to sphere of joy, alive with Miller\u2019s rhythmic and soaring piano playing, carrying Slack\u2019s incredible word painting with all things between the uncertainty of life and the conviction that we seek:<\/p>\n

You are beauty<\/em>
\nYour are life and<\/em>
\nWe are light
\n(by poet Tsitsi Ella Jaji)<\/em><\/p>\n

The closing work, Amanirenas by Damien Geter<\/strong>, was substantial in its length and dramatic depth. Despite the overall demand of the program, both Slack and Miller had plenty of fire left in them; once again, seamlessly fusing speaking narrative and full-out operatic singing, Slack\u2019s delivery of powerful high notes and incredibly long phrases kept the evening a high-octane affair right to the end.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Slack sang a compelling, technically and musically superb recital this evening, and Miller\u2019s fantastic musicianship and partnership filled this evening with beauty and grace. However, the most exceptional point is Slack\u2019s intelligence, passion and leadership that fueled her to the conception and execution of such an enormous project.<\/p>\n

Her creation of the African Queens, and her embodiment of the stories \u2014 as if she\u2019s just pulling out these legends from her heart as a natural flow from the dreams of generations long ago \u2014 to us, in 21st century Toronto, through new living voices, is exceptional.<\/p>\n

It is very exciting to see where she might lead us through her lifetime, and beyond.<\/p>\n

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Soprano Karen Slack and pianist Kevin Miller\u2019s recital: African Queens, at the Walter Hall was a true exultation and celebration of Black womanhood and leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":112869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,19,43,47,52,63],"tags":[41798,41800],"yst_prominent_words":[18651,9299],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/03\/Copy-of-REVIEW-2025-03-21T102758.419.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-tmq","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112866"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112892,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112866\/revisions\/112892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112866"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=112866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}