The Dessoff Choirs will continue its season celebrating African American composer Margaret Bonds on April 28, 2022.

The one-night-only concert comprises the New York premieres of the orchestral versions of two neglected Bonds cantatas, Credo inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’s essay and Simon Bore the Cross, a collaboration with Langston Hughes.

The concert will be conducted by Dessoff’s Music Director Malcolm J. Merriweather and will be joined by a full orchestra, Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton, renowned soprano soloist Janinah Burnett, and the Carter Legacy Singers.

In a statement, Merriweather said, “Dessoff is dedicated to performing rarely heard choral masterpieces. We are thrilled to cast a spotlight on Margaret Bonds’s neglected, but important contribution to the American music canon. She is a forgotten voice for civil rights that must be remembered, appreciated, and cherished. It seems the time has come for Bonds’s voice to be heard!”