Guest Soloist Tyrone Hayes

GRAMMY-winning artists Imani Winds have invited local professor Tyrone Hayes to perform with them for this Montgomery concert. A professor at Alabama State University, Mr. Hayes is renowned in the Montgomery area for his vocal talents, his skills as a vocal coach and his leadership of the ASU group Trebled Soul. On the concert stage he has been a soloist in the premiere of Edwin Penhorwood’s An American Requiem, Faure’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, and Charpentier’s Christmas Oratorio. We are grateful to Mr. Hayes for orchestrating this complex cross-country practice and performing this piece “Deep Rivers” that has so much meaning for Montgomery. Commissioned in 2015 for ClefWorks by The J.K. Lowder Family Foundation, “Deep Rivers” is a moving piece that commemorates Montgomery’s unique role in American history. The composer Momo Fairouz drew on themes that recognize the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March. It is a privilege to return to this piece eleven years later and return again to the Deep Rivers of America’s past.