As a part of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s new community partner-focused concert series, Sound Waves, the KSO is working with local artists to bring a fusion of Hip Hop and classical music to Kalamazoo. Titled Symphonic Beats: Celebrating Hip Hop Culture, the concert will take place on Friday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Kalamazoo Central High School.
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“This project has been built from the ground up in partnership with Dr. Kandace “DC” Lavender and Yolonda Lavender of Soul Artistry,” says KSO President & CEO Jessica Mallow Gulley. “Dr. Lavender and Symphony Music Director Julian Kuerti have been creating this project for over a year, and we are so excited to share it with our community.”
Featuring over 15 artists, the concert explores the origin of Hip Hop and its history as an artistic movement, celebrating the contributions and voices of African American artists within the art form. Spoken word, poetry, and dance elements will all be backed by musicians from the Symphony.
“When I envisioned this concert, I wanted to take the audience back to the origin of Hip Hop. Hip Hop as a cultural phenomenon and not hip hop as a genre of music. To explore Hip Hop as a cultural phenomenon is to explore the story of its evolution, and in that story lies a truth that has been lost in the mainstream,” says Dr. Kandace Lavender, concert curator, executive director of local non-profit Read and Write Kalamazoo, and owner/CEO of The Teacher Cypher. “Throughout the concert, we will explore each core pillar of Hip Hop: Knowledge of Self, Dance, Graffiti, Rap, and DJing. In these pillars, the truth of Hip Hop will be told. I am grateful for the amazing lineup of artists we will share the stage with for such a special night.”
As a part of the collaboration, new music has been written specifically for this collaboration project to blend symphonic sounds with Hip Hop.
“There is no roadmap for this concert! We are breaking new ground with this collaboration to fuse hip hop and orchestral music,” says KSO Music Director Julian Kuerti. “Working with DC, it became clear early on that new material would need to be written. We are so proud to feature original music composed especially for this concert by Jordan Hamilton (who also joins us onstage as a player and soloist) and myself. We’ll play some amazing symphonic treatments of DC’s original songs, as well as some brand new, Hip Hop inspired music.”
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