Reflections: A World-Premiere Performance of Songs by Trevor Weston, with Words and Music by Ignatius Sancho

In a partnership between Rise Up Community Arts and the American Musicological Society, soprano Sonya Headlam and historical keyboardist Rebecca Cypess present the world-premiere performance of Reflections, a song cycle for voice and historical piano by New Jersey-based composer Trevor Weston. This performance is part of AMS's Many Musics of America project in conjunction with America 250. Weston's pieces are based on excerpts from the correspondence of Ignatius Sancho, an eighteenth-century Black writer and composer who was also the first Black British person to cast a vote in an election. Sancho's writings address topics ranging from everyday life to religion and family to the horrors of the international slave trade, and he encoded subtle antiracist messages in his music. The concert also features songs and instrumental music written by Sancho himself, as well as works by other composers and writers of African descent from the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Additional sponsorship for this performance from the Middlesex County Board of Commissioners and the Friends of Metuchen Arts.

This performance is also being livestreamed by the American Musicological Society, and tickets to the livestream can be purchased by clicking here.