Bourgie Hall presents

The Women of Chicago’s Black Renaissance

Renowned for her brilliant technique and rich sound, pianist Michelle Cann will present a recital centred on several of Chicago’s African-American women composers, including Margaret Bonds, Irene Britton Smith, Nora Holt, Betty Jackson King, Florence Price and Hazel Scott.

Michelle Cann, piano

Lauded as “exquisite” by The Philadelphia Inquirer and “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, Michelle Cann has become one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. She made her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2021 and has recently performed concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, and Cincinnati.

Highlights of Cann’s 2023-24 season include appearances with the Charlotte, Hawaii, Indianapolis, Québec, Sarasota, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras, and recitals in New York City, Portland, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, and Denver. She also has teaching and performance residencies at the University of Indiana South Bend and Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington.

Recognized as a leading interpreter of the piano music of Florence Price, Cann performed the New York City premiere of Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in February 2021. Her recording of the concerto with the New York Youth Symphony won a Grammy Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance. Her acclaimed debut solo album Revival, featuring music by Price and Margaret Bonds, was released in May 2023 on the Curtis Studio label. She has also recorded two Price piano quintets with the Catalyst Quartet.

Cann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Paul Schenly and Dr. Daniel Shapiro, and an Artist’s Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert McDonald. She joined the Curtis piano faculty in 2020 as the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies. She joined the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 2023.

Program
Margaret BONDS Spiritual Suite
Betty JACKSON KING Four Seasonal Sketches
Irene BRITTON SMITH Variations on a theme by MacDowell
Nora HOLT Dance Op. 25, No. 1
Hazel SCOTT
Improvisation on Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor
Improvisation on Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Florence PRICE
Fantasie  No. 1
Fantasie No. 2
Fantasie  No. 4

Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 7:30pm
To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/bourgie-hall/