by Kevin McLaughlin
“Celebrating Black Excellence” was CityMusic’s organizing theme for the latest of their 2023-24 season presentations, held at the sound-absorbent East Zion Baptist Church on Thursday, October 19.
You can quibble about how “Black” the program was, with a lineup that included Artie Shaw’s Clarinet Concerto, selections from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance.
But as for “Black excellence,” there was an abundance. Works by Jessie Montgomery, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and William Grant Still each sparkled in smart, moving, and inspiring ways. And the three vocal soloists, all current students at Oberlin Conservatory, shone.