Biracial composer seeks her ‘true name’ through piece for North Corner Chamber OrchestraPosted in Articles, Arts, Media Archive, United States on 2017-03-12 16:53Z by Steven |
Biracial composer seeks her ‘true name’ through piece for North Corner Chamber Orchestra
The Seattle Times
2017-02-16
Jason Victor Serinus, Special to The Seattle Times
Composer Hanna Benn
NOCCO’s Feb. 18-19 concerts will feature a work by local composer Hanna Benn; works by Davida Ingram, Alex Guy and Rick Benjamin, rooted in Scott Joplin’s opera, “Treemonisha”; and works by Alvin Singleton and George Walker.
It is the very subject of “Resonance,” North Corner Chamber Orchestra’s concert “Celebrating Black American Composers,” that left Seattle-based composer Hanna Benn, 29, in a bit of quandary. As much as she was delighted to work with one of the world’s few conductorless chamber orchestras, her commission to honor black American composers left her pondering the fact that she is biracial, and does not see herself as either black or white.
“For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to understand where I come from, and my responsibility as a biracial person,” she explained by phone and email. “I want to completely embrace my blackness / my whiteness.”…
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