Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran’s Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration explores the Great Migration of six million Black Americans from the rural South to northern cities and beyond. The husband and wife duo—he a MacArthur Fellow and acclaimed jazz composer and pianist, she a celebrated classical vocalist and composer—trace their family histories through the music that accompanied these brave travelers throughout the 20th century, from Harlem Renaissance–era jazz tunes, gospel hymns, bebop standards, and Broadway show tunes, to classical and chamber music and the Morans’ own compositions. Two Wings also includes texts by Black scholars, and poets. The production, in its West Coast premiere, will be recreated especially for Cal Performances audiences, with a star-studded roster of performers, writers, thinkers, and special guests to be announced.
This performance is part of Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Place and Displacement” series.
