Peace Piece

A meditation on the role of art in envisioning and enacting peace in our communities, featuring music that traces the struggle for peace throughout our country's history, including a stirring arrangement of a spiritual, a new work written during the pandemic, and a pair of peace-themed jazz arrangements. Our guests are three extraordinary creative thinkers who tell stories through their art: composer Jessie Montgomery and poets Keno Evol and Lester Batiste, who introduce their Minneapolis-based organization BlackTableArts.

Musical selections in order of performance [timestamp]:

• Jessie Montgomery – "Peace" (2020) [4:25]
• "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" arr. J. Rosamond Johnson and Maud Powell [26:26]
• Bill Evans – "Peace Piece" arr. American Stories [43:19]
• Horace Silver – "Peace" arr. American Stories [1:00:55]

Learn more about BlackTableArts at https://www.blacktablearts.com/.

About us:

Sophia Stoyanovich is a violinist originally from Bainbridge Island, Washington. Born into a family of artists, Sophia seeks to develop projects that cultivate empathy through exploring identities. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she has performed internationally, including soloing with the Seattle Symphony. In 2014 she traveled throughout Vietnam with the About Face Foundation, teaching at schools and orphanages. She is also communications director and violinist of The Versoi Ensemble, an international chamber ensemble dedicated to cultural diplomacy through chamber music. Derek Wang is a New York-based pianist and communicator who is guided by the value of committed listening in musical and social spaces. He is a graduate student at The Juilliard School and member of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He appeared on an NPR Tiny Desk episode in 2018 as emcee for From the Top. He has played family concerts alongside the animated short film collection Magic Piano and the Chopin Shorts in the U.S., Mexico, and on tour in China.

Visit www.american-stories.org, where this episode is available for download in an MP3 format.

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