In honor of National Women’s History Month, WQED welcomes you to this evening’s premiere of John Christopher Wineglass’s Unburied, Unmourned and Unmarked, a composition conceived and inspired by Dr. Edda Fields-Black, Associate Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University. Featuring: the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra  |  Maestro Leslie B. Dunner, Conductor  |  Anyango Yarbo-Davenport, Concertmaster  |  Michele Williams and Kyle Haden, Narrators

*Turn CAPTIONS ON for the speaker's exact transcription.

Hear reations and a wrap up from the musicians:

Known as the largest black classical musicians’ festival in the world, the Colour of Music Festival was founded to showcase the thousands of celebrated and prodigiously talented classical principals, composers, and performers of African descent throughout the world. Only a few classical music enthusiasts are aware of the tremendous contributions of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an African-French composer whose opera and classical masterpieces equaled or far exceeded those of his 18th century contemporaries. Although his compositions are highly recognized overseas they have garnered little notice in the United States.

In the past 7-years, the Colour of Music Festival has produced a multitude of musical events of major historical significance, highlighting the impact of black classical composers and performers in Atlanta, Columbia, SC, Houston, Nashville, Richmond and Pittsburgh. The February 13, 2019 premiere of Unburied, Unmourned, and Unmarked at historic Carnegie Music Hall was a four-year endeavor of Dr. Edda Fields-Black. The tireless academic work about rice cultivation and its black laborers contributions to an unquantifiable accumulation of wealth that played a major role in financial markets founding the America we know today, chronicles various aspects of the rice industry in that time.

Colour of Music Festival founder, artistic director of the Festival orchestra and producer of the event, Lee Pringle, and Dr. Fields-Black worked closely with Carnegie Mellon University to bring this historic event to the stage.