On Stage with IRIS: Karen Slack

Presenting concerts of iconic chamber music works in an intimate, cabaret-style setting on the stage in the Highland Capital Performance Hall. 

Soprano Karen Slack gives her Iris debut with songs from her recent Grammy-winning album, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price. The first African-American woman to have her work performed by a major symphony orchestra, Florence Price received little recognition during her lifetime. This intimate performance will give Memphis audiences their first chance to hear these exciting and moving songs. Ms. Slack has been praised for performances that “ripped the audience's heart out” (Opera News). She will also be accompanied by members of the Iris Collective in a set of songs by William Grant Still titled Songs of Separation. Setting texts by Arna Bontemps, Philippe Thoby Marcelin, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes, this version of the work by Still will be accompanied by a string quartet for a truly special collaboration between Iris and one of today’s leading voices in classical music. 

Iris Collective will collaborate with St. George’s Independent School’s art teachers and students on an interdisciplinary project exploring the intersection of visual and auditory perspectives. Iris musicians will lead SGIS art students through a pair of workshops exploring concepts of perspective in art and life using the music of Florence Price, in particular her songs recently recorded by soprano Karen Slack, as inspiration. Students will then create original works of art depicting their interpretations of Price’s work and Slack’s recorded performance. The students will share their pieces with Ms. Slack and the SGIS community at a special Rebecca’s Light event in October leading up to our GPAC performance.