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Recent Performance

When Still
CYO proudly premiered Dr. Dana Hall’s When Still inspired by Chris Coles’s Nine Lives Project. Coles’s Nine Lives honors the nine souls who lost their lives in the 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Hall’s new work extends Coles’s project to reflect on ten souls lost in a Buffalo, NY grocery store shooting. Both Hall and Coles invite us to come together through music to seek a more connected, more compassionate, more tolerant and more empathetic future.
This commission seeks to use music as a catalyst for important and difficult dialogue, to break free of preconceived ideas of what is possible in an orchestral setting and to provide students with a safe space to improvise and experiment musically. Dr. Hall’s 4-movement piece challenges us to ask questions about ongoing gun violence in communities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Charleston and Chicago. His second movement entitled Six Minutes in Buffalo directly speaks to the mass shooting that occurred on May 14, 2022 in a grocery store in Buffalo, NY that claimed 10 lives.
Dr. Hall’s work, like Chris Coles’s Nine Lives Project, invites us all to be a voice of reason amidst violence, chaos and hate. The final movement of Dr. Hall’s piece entitled Mother Emanuel: Home evokes hope that compassion, understanding, empathy, tolerance, peace and love will prevail.
CYO commissions contemporary voices to speak directly to current moments in time and to transform the orchestra into a laboratory for learning for musicians and audiences alike. Our intention is that this piece will inspire critical conversations and introduce young people to the idea of music as a means to build connections between people by showing empathy, respect and understanding.
It is our honor to work with Dana Hall, Chris Coles and Zaire Darden on this reimagined project for orchestra, and we are humbled to carry on the light of the nine lives lost in Charleston and the ten lives lost in Buffalo through music.
Chris Coles & Dana Hall, composers
Friday
May 17, 2024
7:00 PM

Cuyahoga Community College
Metropolitan CampusAuditorium
2900 Community College Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115

Six Minutes in Buffalo

On May 14, 2022, there was a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY. The act of violence was racially motivated and happened while individuals were going about their daily lives. Ten people were killed. The ten souls lost were: Aaron Salter, 55; Ruth Whitfield, 86; Pearl Young, 77; Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72; Heyward Patterson, 67; Celestine Chaney, 65; Roberta Drury, 32; Margus D. Morrison, 52; Andre Mackneil, 53; Geraldine Talley, 62.

Nine Lives

On June 17, 2015, there was a mass shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The act of violence was racially motivated and happened at the end of a Bible study while individuals were peacefully praying. Nine people were killed. The nine souls lost were: Clementa C. Pinckney, 41; Cynthia Graham Hurd, 54; Susie J. Jackson, 87; Ethel Lee Lance, 70; DePayne Vontrease Middleton-Doctor, 49; Tywanza Kibwe Diop Sanders, 26; Daniel Lee Simmons Sr., 74; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; and Myra Singleton Quarles Thompson, 59.

Notice of Filming & Photography

Please note that CYO is filming a documentary, and the performance you are attending will be filmed, audio recorded, video recorded and photographer.

By entering the event premises, you consent to interview(s), photography, audio recording, video recording and its/their release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction to be used for news, web casts, promotional purposes, telecasts, advertising, inclusion on websites, social media, or any other purpose by CYO and its affiliates and representatives. Images, photos and/or videos may be used to promote similar CYO events in the future, highlight the event and exhibit the capabilities of CYO. You release CYO, its officers and employees, and each and all persons involved from any liability connected with the taking, recording, digitizing, or publication and use of interviews, photographs, computer images, video and/or or sound recordings.

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You have been fully informed of your consent, waiver of liability, and release before entering the event.

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