Family Edition with West Side Fireflies

For Family Edition 2024, D-Composed teamed up with Old Town School of Music's West Side Fireflies for an afternoon at Garfield Park Conservatory celebrating Black composers, from spirituals to contemporary selections.

The program started with the affirming words of Nina Simone's "Young, Gifted, and Black," and then D-Composed ensemble members performed upbeat selections with Daniel Bernard Roumain's Klap Ur Handz from String Quartet No. 5 "Rosa Parks"

Music Moves' teaching artists Angel Bat Dawid and Julian Otis Cooke created arrangements of spirituals accompanied by D-Composed so that children and adults alike could sing to their hearts' content and release their inner child.

The afternoon was a lively celebration of Black music.

Featured ensemble members included Caitlin Edwards on violin, Khelsey Zarraga on violin, Wilfred Farquharson on viola, and Tahirah Whittington on Cello.

Photos are by Ashley Mia