Join us for the March performance in our Community Concert Series, featuring Walker|West Music Academy’s ensemble Kamoinge Strings!
The concert is FREE to attend, with a freewill offering benefiting Walker|West Music Academy.
About the concert: Stringocracy
Call and Response as Social Activism from Vivaldi to Hip Hop – Stringocracy is a yearlong project incorporating dialogue, “call and response,” improvisation, and civic engagement through string-centered music. In conjunction with the national election and the energy of young people to engage in social justice efforts that foster social impact, this 90-minute concert explores social activism through a “call & response” approach from a cross-section of music genres rooted in the African/African American cultural experience as well as traditional Western concert music. The ensemble of high school string students will explore improvisation, a highly democratic dialectic form, as expressions of identity through their music performance.
About KAMOINGE STRINGS (pronounced “kom-wean-geh”)
Inspired by the concept of community, the string ensemble of Walker West was created to perform works that reflect the cultural diversity of the string students and families in our program. Kamoinge is a Kikuyu (Kenya) word meaning a group working together, unforced and unconstrained, to do good for the community. Borrowing from this idea, the ensemble seeks to impact the underrepresentation of Black, Latino, and Indigenous participants in youth symphonies and chamber music programs. Comprised of students in grades 7-12, the ensemble of mostly violinists has performed on the Ordway and Orchestra Hall stages. Students are members of the Minnesota Youth Symphonies, the Greater Twins Cities Youth Symphonies, and the Artaria Chamber Music School. Students have also participated in summer string programs at the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Curtis Institute, and the Chicago College of Music as members of the Sphinx Performance Academy. Kamoinge Strings has premiered new works by African-American composers. Anthony R. Green and PaviElle French, and in February 2023, performed Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed as part of a community-centered event that included the South African Choral Ensemble, 29:11 and other Twin Cities-based choirs and musicians. The ensemble has also performed with the Hip-Hop string duo Black Violin and has performed for such groups as the National Bar Association’s Judicial Council, The Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers, the National Association of Counties, The Bell Museum, and the Rondo Center for Diverse Expression. Most recently, the ensemble performed. Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing at the Target Center for the Timberwolves Black History Night Game.
About the Community Concert Series
Over the past decade+, the Prospect Park United Methodist Church Community Concert Series has contributed over $60,000 to a variety of community service programs and organizations across the Twin Cities. It’s a perfect combination – enjoying great music and raising money for a worthwhile cause! A delicious dessert buffet follows the concert.
PPUMC is located at 22 Orlin Ave SE in Minneapolis, at the foot of the historic Prospect Park Water Tower, one block south of University Ave on Malcolm Ave and adjacent to the Metro Transit Green Line. Free parking is available on-street and at Pratt Community School.
For more information, please call (612) 378-2380 or email office@prospectparkchurch.org.