Portraits: MAFB Fall Concert

MAFB’s fall concert blends music about those who pursued liberty and justice for all with “space—the final frontier.” Julie Giroux’s Boston Liberties programmatically recounts the first days of the American Revolution. Lincoln Portrait by Aaron Copland, and O’Neal Douglas, Jr’s Vigil touch upon key points in the battle for civil rights, culminating in Florence Price’s Three Negro Dances and an excerpt from Julius Eastman’s Gay Guerrilla.

Price was the first African-American woman to have a piece played by a major orchestra, and Eastman was a queer black maverick musician of uncompromising skill and innovation. Louisa Trewartha’s premiere takes inspiration from the frontier setting of Little House on the Prairie, and the final frontiers are showcased in a medley of themes from the Star Trek series, Ralph Raymond Hays’ Jovian Moons, and a whimsical take on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Frederick Piket.