Let Freedom Ring: African-American Music as American Musical History and Culture

About the event

As part of the WSU School of Music “Music: A Mosaic of Experience” Lecture Series, Donté Alexander Ford will present the lecture “Let Freedom Ring: African-American Music as American Musical History and Culture.”

This presentation affirms Black musical expression as a viable form of American culture. Born out of documented duress, the musical contributions of enslaved Africans in the earliest days of United States history exemplifies a creative synthesis of cultural preservation and adaptation, that conceived and birthed songs of sorrow, yet hope. To sing these songs – and songs like it – is to honor a people that had hope for social change. The invitation to sing these songs is to all that hope for the same.

Professor Donté will interact with WSU’s Concert Choir and WSU’s Choral faculty: Drs. Angelica Dunsavage and Dean Luethi via Zoom.