MLK concert Jan. 19 in Montpelier looks to establish an annual event
January 10, 2025 | By Waterbury Roundabout 
Pianist Michael Arnowitt performs with the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra on Jan. 19. Courtesy photo
The Montpelier Chamber Orchestra along with the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir and Shidaa Projects will present an MLK, Jr. commemorative concert on Sunday, Jan. 19, in Montpelier.
The performance will be held at the City Hall Arts Center, 4-6 p.m. and organizers hope it will establish an event to mark the holiday for years to come, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy through the arts. The concert will be the concluding event of the three-day roots and folk music celebration, Spice on Snow music festival, Jan. 17-19, presented by Montpelier Alive.
Sunday program will feature songs and compositions by African American artists, Ghana dance and drumming, and BIPOC musicians, dancers, and singers. A special guest will be pianist Michael Arnowitt -- familiar to Waterbury audiences from his time playing at Michael’s on the Hill. Organizers hope to create an uplifting experience through a community sing-along, dance and drumming, with stories of African American history and social justice punctuating the music. The event will be live-streamed for those who cannot attend in person.
Over the two hours, some 55 performers will be featured:
Montpelier Community Gospel Choir will sing songs of the civil rights movement.
Shidaa Projects will perform West African-style dancing and drumming featuring International award-winning Samuel Maama Marquaye accompanied by the Shidaa drumming team led by Artistic director Jordan Mensah.
Montpelier Chamber Orchestra strings will present works of African American composers, including Matthew Evan Taylor and Florence Price.
Michael Arnowitt will play the works of African American composers, civil rights music, and a piece he composed in honor of George Flloyd.
Rev. Joan Javier Duval will lead an invocation.
Verdis Levar Robinson will serve as Master of Ceremonies, with a background as both a Unitarian Universalist Minister and a professor of African American studies.
On the program, the music of the great Black classical musician George Walker will be represented by a selection from his Sonata no. 2, showcasing the dynamic, sparkling, and powerful music of the first African-American concert pianist to perform major piano concertos with the greatest American symphony orchestras in the period after World War II and the first Black composer to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Leslie Adams’ romantic and expressive Etude in G minor will be performed -- beautiful music by the African-American Cleveland native who died recently at the age of 91. Arnowitt will also play the Nigerian composer Joshua Uzoigwe’s “Ukom” from the composer’s set of piano pieces “Talking Drums,” music evoking the traditional drumming and singing of celebratory memorial music of southeastern Nigeria. Arnowitt will wear his jazz pianist hat to close his set with his original jazz composition “Chicago Avenue” in memory of George Floyd and a performance of “Afro Blue,” the 1959 Mongo Santamaria classic made famous by the saxophonist John Coltrane, a tune incorporating the rhythm of African drumming mixed with a jazz-blues feel uniquely created by Black musicians in America.
Tickets: $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, children 18 and under are free. The elevator at Montpelier City Hall Arts Center is not in operation. The event will be
live-streamed to accommodate those who can not manage the steps. Find more information online here. Purchase tickets online here or at the door by cash or check if still available. Sponsors include: Montpelier Alive, B&J Foundation, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Lost Nation Theater, TURNmusic, Front Four Gallery, and Paul Perley Cellos.