FLUTE CONCERTO No. 2

Program Note

My Flute Concerto No. 2 was commissioned by Dr. David J. Brown in 2023. David and I go back 40 years, when we were both young musicians studying at the Montclair University (NJ) summer arts program. David was an aspiring flutist and I was a young composer. Our friendship started in a theory class and soon we were close friends and I  composed many flute works for David, who tirelessly read through all of them with great excitement and enthusiasm.

Forty years passed and David, though still an avid and skilled flutist and founding member of the University of Michigan Life Sciences Orchestra, became an otolaryngologist and is presently Associate Vice President and Associate Dean at Michigan Medicine. Racial and healthcare equity are at the core of David’s personal and professional mission.

David contacted me in 2023 about writing a flute concerto and he envisioned a work with a programmatic theme. He challenged me to engage my creativity to capture the African American experience in my writing. I accepted. Initially, it was a challenge, as this was not my cultural heritage. But after reading and educating myself about the grueling struggles for personhood and equity for African Americans in these United States, I profoundly deepened my understanding and sensitivity. I learned that with thought and effort, empathy and sensitivity for others can be found and felt in oneself, and hopefully anyone else who tries this as well. Perhaps my concerto will be a launching point for others to do the same.

The experience of African Americans over the last four hundred years in the US has been like a pendulum, with ongoing ups and downs. Despite these adversities, there is much resilience in the Black community. The first movement is slow and thoughtful and portrays the collective quest for equality and the soul of the collective African American. The second movement, fast and agitated, depicts the African American struggles, from the slave trade to the present day. The final movement, which ends peaceful and translucently, portrays the perseverance, resilience and ongoing hope of the African American community.