https://www.levinemusic.org/guided-listening/
GUIDED LISTENING
Guided Listening with JoAnna Cochenet
Cultural Storytelling and Crossovers
Explore well-known works and discover new treasures of the musical repertory in our Guided Listening sessions with JoAnna Cochenet.
In each session, we’ll closely examine the music through clues and information left by the composer and inferred from their life, performance practice, and other historical and relative means. Please listen to the pieces at least once before coming to the sessions to help prepare your ears, mind, and thoughts for the conversation about the works.
Guided Listening takes place online over Zoom. The link to join the Zoom will be provided the week of the event.
This year, we are exploring the music of various cultures as we find them in crossover or storytelling settings within the repertory of orchestral music, which, for many in the United States and Europe, may first bring to mind the orchestral music heritage of Western European orchestras. With only this, however, we leave out many other stories.
When cultures cross or are allowed to take up space of their own, we are either left with a wonderful blend of elements of more than one culture, or we can learn of important stories that are not always at the forefront, which includes being on the concert stage. The synthesis of sound creation may come in a fusion of more than one style or the storytelling of a region or person’s story. In our case, in this series, it is through the medium of the orchestra—and in all cases, through an effervescent kaleidoscope that is a representation and voice of humanity.
Just as there are many ways to create a final composition and many impetuses behind doing so, all are unique and told from the composer’s perspective. We set off in this series to explore several works and styles that have made their way to the orchestral medium, learning the voices of more and more composers and the stories of more and more people.
Hip-Hop and Orchestra – A unique pairing of great minds and abilities
Friday, October 6, 2023
7 PM ET
Danial Sheibani’s Freedom Uncanny – Devastation of Iranian culture and hope for a new beginning
Friday, December 8, 2023
7 PM ET
Florence Price’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America (1932) – A vignette of a life and lives altered
Friday, January 26, 2024
7 PM ET
Reena Esmail’s Vishwas – A 15th-century Indian story
Friday, April 19, 2024
7 PM ET