D-Composed on Screen x Chicago International Film Festival

For the 60th anniversary of the Chicago International Film Festival, we celebrated the works of Black film composers, becoming the first ensemble to be featured at the historic festival. Music highlighted spanned documentaries, thrillers, and dramas at the Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts.

Featured composers included Kathryn Bostic with music from The Pieces I Am: Toni Morrison Tamar-kali with music from Shirley, Kris Bowers with music from King Richard, Amanda Jones with music from Mea Culpa, and Terence Blanchard with music from Terence Blanchard.

Ahmed Al Abaca arranged each score for the string quartet, transforming large orchestra works into a more intimate chamber-style composition.

Bringing each of these scores to life was Khelsey Zarraga on violin, Anya Brumfield on violin, Wilfred Farquharson on viola, and Malik Johnson on cello.

Following the performance, LaRob K. Rafael, host of WFMT's Sounds Classical, moderated a discussion on the creative process, the contributions of Black composers in film, and what audiences can take away from the significance of Black composers' voices in storytelling.

This program was supported in part by Arts Midwest, Illinois Humanities, & The Amphion Foundation.