for Mezzo Soprano and Piano. Par SOREY TYSHAWN. Death by Tyshawn Sorey was commissioned by the L. A. Opera for a streaming premiere by mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms in February 2021, with pianist Howard Watkins. Its text, by the great Black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, imagines just a glimmer of light dawning over a bleak, nightmarish landscape, haunted by death, which the composer explicitly co…

Par BURTON KEN. British composer Ken Burton uses the writing of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906), the black American son of emancipated slaves, in his 3-minute work A Prayer. The text of the three verses is bitter-sweet, filled with hope and sadness, and the music combines with this to make a rhythmically simple reflective evening hymn. Burton draws on Spiritual, Gospel and Blues to write a piece …