The Missouri Symphony presents an evening experience that includes a discussion and the performance of Carlos Simon’s Requiem for the Enslaved, a piece for spoken word artist and a chamber ensemble. The performance, featuring Rev. Dr. Clyde Ruffin, is about reconciliation, yet it is done in a way that does not shy away from an atrocious past. The librettist Marco Pavé explored the history of Georgetown, both the university and the city, in its dark past of trading enslaved people. Here in Missouri, a state that both has histories in providing safe harbor to escaped and freed enslaved people while having its own undeniably dark past of slave trade, the Missouri Symphony aims to be part of the ongoing discourse in discovering the past and exploring a way forward with this performance. The concert will be presented by utilizing the stories of a few formerly enslaved people in Georgetown, while done in the honor of many, near and far.

Wilbur Lin, conductor
Rev. Dr. Clyde Ruffin, spoken word artist

The Missouri Symphony