Holden Chapel
Free and open to the public. Audience Q&A to follow.
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis in conversation with Harvard faculty Vijay Iyer and Yosvany Terry with opening remarks by Carolyn Abbate.
The Harvard Music Department is pleased to announce Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer Anthony Davis as an Eileen Southern Distinguished Visitor. Anthony Davis is an internationally renowned composer and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his opera The Central Park Five. His opera X, The Life and Times of Malcom X, which debuted at the New York City Opera in 1986, is considered the first of its genre: opera on a contemporary political subject. Davis is also acclaimed for his virtuoso performances both as a solo pianist and as the leader of the ensemble Episteme. He has composed works for Broadway, including Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.
The title of Eileen Southern Distinguished Visitor honors the first African American woman tenured in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Southern was a foundational figure in the historical study of black music in the United States. Her The Music of Black first appeared in 1971. Other Eileen Southern Distinguished Visitors have included: Tania León, Angélique Kidjo, and Wadada Leo Smith.