Musicians of the Colour of Music Festival

For those who read SFCV’s lengthy article on The Colour of Music Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, the festival itself is online this year, giving a chance to hear some part of its offerings. Of course, the orchestral dates are off the table, but a few other concerts are coming.

Anyango Yarbo-Davenport

The festival’s star violinist, Anyango Yarbo-Davenport, is the attraction for the festival finale, when she will play a Porgy and Bess Fantasy on Feb. 7, with Kyle P. Walker at the piano. Percussionist Sean Daniels sets up shop with his marimba on Feb. 3, playing, among other things, the middle movement of Paul Creston’s Marimba Concerto (with pianist Lawrence Quinnett) and his own Third Stream Inspired. Walker and Quinnett share the Feb. 4 concert, with Walker playing a mixed program including music by Chopin, Beethoven, Harry T. Burleigh, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, and Margaret Bonds, while Quinnett gives us J.S. Bach’s French Suite in D Minor to close out the concert.

Violinist Jessica Robinson-Stinson takes the virtual stage on Feb. 5 for a recital bookended by sonatas by Mozart and Franck (with Walker at the piano) and including Astor Piazzolla’s Five Tangos for Violin and Bass (with bassist Jacqueline Pickett).

But the festival’s biggest event, in size anyway, is the Feb. 6 concert: an octet led by Davenport plays Mendelssohn’s Octet and a quartet plays Valerie Coleman’s UMOJA.

Tickets to all events are $25 per household and are available here. For more details on the festival, check the Colour of Music website.