ISO welcomes Angela Brown to debut piece honoring Coretta Scott King

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) will debut a piece this month honoring Coretta Scott King alongside works by Beethoven and Brahms.

Under the direction of Anthony Parnther, the ISO’s latest program takes place March 13-14 at Hilbert Circle Theatre, including Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, “Xian shi” with ISO Principal Viola Yu Jin and the newly commissioned “Phenomenal Queen: Coretta Scott King” with Hoosier soprano Angela Brown returning for the world premiere. 

“It’s always wonderful to sing at home because it’s home,” Brown said. “I’ve been blessed enough to have a built-in fan base, so as long as they love me, I love them back, so I’m excited to be coming back home.”

James Lee III composed “Phenomenal Queen: Coretta Scott King” as a commission for the ISO and Brown’s foundation, Morning Brown, Inc. “Phenomenal Queen” is a 20-minute piece, featuring four movements, each based on an aspect of Coretta Scott King’s life. 

READ MORE: Eiteljorg showcases ‘Cowboy Couture,’ the work of Jerry Lee Atwood

Lee studied piano performance at Andrews University before transferring to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he finished his degree and pursued a graduate degree in composition. “Phenomenal Queen” is the first piece Lee has composed for voice and orchestra but said it’s a companion piece to a concerto he wrote about Martin Luther King Jr.

“I think music really reaches to the soul more than just simple words can do,” Lee said. “I just think it really moves the individual, the soul, to even want to be a better human being; how we think about treating our fellow man and woman, men and women. … and I try to do that in my writing, like choosing aspects of harmony and rhythm, I really kind of go into that inner soul of the individual.”

None of the written words are biographical, Brown said. It’s all conceptual. When composing the piece, Lee used his own writing, as well as a variety of negro spirituals, poetry and Bible verses in the public domain to create a balance between the human voice and the orchestra.

The first movement, entitled “And I Can Sing,” honors King’s aspirations before her marriage to Martin Luther King Jr. The movement discusses King’s beginnings as a classically trained soprano and her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Lee said. 

The second movement, titled “Movements,” is about the Civil Rights Movement and King’s involvement alongside her husband. The piece shifts to the injustices African Americans faced during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s in the third movement, “Choose Justice,” Brown said. 

“Beloved Community” is the final movement of the piece, and aims to be a “very peaceful and blissful” conclusion to the piece,” Lee said. The final movement incorporates imagery and elements surrounding the idea of a paradise that includes “all peoples, whether you’re Black of white, we’re all precious in his sight,” Brown added.

“I wanted to take them (audiences) on a journey,” Lee said. “We moved from … this idea of aspirations and dreams that we may have in life, and then we have some obstacles that you might hear, especially that second and third movement, in terms of forward progression. Those obstacles that are in the way, how are we going to negotiate around those? Then, moving on to the last, we really come to some sort of resolution.”

The piece also fulfills Morning Brown, Inc.’s mission to diversify the classical music canon, and creates new works by, for and about Black people because Black and brown children “need to be able to see themselves on the stage” and learn more about King as a historical figure, Brown said. “Phenomenal Queen” includes a four-unit, interactive, interdisciplinary classroom curriculum for middle and high school students, created by veteran music curriculum writer Terry Taylor and music sociologist Joshua Thompson.

The curriculum is free to teachers and schools to access at morningbrown.org thanks to a grant from the Philip and Elizabeth Smith Fund of the Indianapolis Foundation.

“Even though this music does not have words or libretti that she (King) sang or anything like that, it’s all conceptualized; they get to learn more about her by having the classroom curriculum done and then being able to come to the symphony orchestra, maybe having had opportunities to have cultural events like this presented to them free,” Brown said. “It’s just important for them to be well-versed and well-connected to everything that the Indianapolis community has to offer for them, especially culturally.”

Brown has dreamed of performing a piece like this for a while and said that being able to present it alongside the ISO and Parnther is a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together and honor King. Brown previously had the chance to sing for King as an Indiana University student in the late 1990s, and said this piece presents a full-circle moment.

Music has always provided comfort to a certain level whenever there is discontent in the system and world, and Brown said she hopes “Phenomenal Queen” is able to “bring some type of comfort for the beloved community.”

“At this time in Earth’s history, it’s about us coming together and thinking about the human condition,” Brown said. “We are all humans, and we are all dealing with the same thing at the same time. And what my parents would say, ‘there are no big I’s, or little you’s, it’s just us.’ It’s we, the people.”

The ISO presents Beethoven’s 8th Symphony at 7:30 p.m. on March 13 and 5:30 p.m. on March 14 at Hilbert Circle Theatre, 45 Monument Circle. Tickets start at $15 for students and start at $20 for adults. Free tickets are available to school groups of 10-30 people through the Prelude Pass. 

For more information, visit indianapolissymphony.org.

Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.