Awaken the Sleeper | American music for our time

André J Thomas delivers a despatch from the front line of Black classical music in the US – including Wynton Marsalis’s dramatic new Tuba Concerto.

One woman crosses centuries: a musical story of injustice, courage and enduring strength. A narrator and an orchestra lead a meditation, based on the words of James Baldwin, on the world as it is – and as it could be. And a jazz icon takes the lowest instrument in the orchestra – the tuba – and makes it a star. This is music that speaks straight to the heart about the stories that matter right now.

André J Thomas is one of the most inspiring forces in modern American music: a composer, a conductor and a world expert on the Gospel tradition. His energy and commitment make him a perfect partner for the LSO’s Principal Tuba Ben Thomson in Wynton Marsalis’s new Tuba Concerto.

‘We are living in a world in which everybody and everything is interdependent ... The future of this world depends on everyone in this room.’~
James Baldwin (from To Awaken the Sleeper)