Donna Lee Davidson reviews the 2024 Toulmin Fellowship Showcase, featuring works by Erica Blunt, Ausia Jones, Wang Lu, and Tiler Peck. buff.ly/4apJ11n

there is no red line, there has never been a red line, that lie is for themselves, and anyone foolish enough to believe it, which is to say people who would believe anything they were told by this administration anyway

Great conversation I had with soprano Karen Slack about so many different things in the field of classical music. Creating pipelines, the importance of music education in public schools, the legacy of Jessye Norman and casting in opera, and finding one’s voice as a young artist!

Soprano Karen Slack is premiering “African Queens” at the Ravinia Festival ® on Aug. 1 in Chicago We talk about that along with finding one’s voice as a young artist, how “African Queens” responds to the legacy of Jessye Norman, her generational impact on opera casting, and more!

Tell me about it

New review: Donna Lee Davidson recaps Peni Candra Rini's performance at Roulette featuring music from her recent New Amsterdam Records release. buff.ly/3ZvT0QI

"Rini is an interpretive master, channeling every sensation of a narrative and wringing it dry... It’s no wonder then how through her artistry, even beyond her musicianship, Rini has toiled a groundbreaking path." buff.ly/3ZvT0QI

Well would you look at that! You can now cruise down Erika Alexander Way out here in Philly! Thank you to Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr., Malcolm Kenyatta, Sharif Street and the city of Philly!! It’s an honor to be part of a city that means so much to me and where I am today.

Join us for our next Staff Picks reading on Wed, Oct 16 @ 7:30pm ET via Zoom featuring SG Huerta, kaylee and Ananya Pandya with opening readings by Donna Lee Davidson, Maria Gray (Maria) and mónica teresa ortiz (mónica teresa ortiz). app.tickettailor.com/events/brookly…

“It’s more than just putting us on stage; it is about making these spaces a home we can come to again and again and again — and not just on a few programs here and there,” said Nathalie Joachim. buff.ly/48qCPXC

If you’re at Sphinx Organization this weekend come visit me at the Imani Winds Media table 👋🏾

What I'm up to this summer with Lincoln Center's Summer for the City 2025 festival this summer. Reactions, not reviews! substack.com/@donnaleebop?u…

Seth Parker Woods at Lincoln Center's Summer for the City festival reaction rather than review. donnaleebop.substack.com/p/seth-parker-…

"Enough with Eastman as a gay Black representative figure defined only by the turmoil and despair he endured, Parker Woods—whether intentionally or not—compels. The concert was nothing but glory despite the grime that erased Eastman’s life, and music." donnaleebop.substack.com/p/seth-parker-…

donnaleebop.substack.com/p/run-amoc-at-… "I wasn’t feeling it when arms shot out of the dinosaur costumes. I wasn’t thinking I can’t wait to see how far this goes! take us to another galaxy! "I audibly said nope I don’t know where we going, y’all leave me here, save yourselves."

"Multimedia artist Christa Bell confronts Black women's relationships to white women, and white women's relationships to their mothers at Lincoln Center's Summer for the City." donnaleebop.substack.com/p/in-the-name-…

"The Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center is Doing Some Cool Shit at this Season's Summer For the City" Jonathan Heyward bringing the nooooiiiissse to Lincoln Center with Symphony of Choice! donnaleebop.substack.com/p/the-festival…

Musician Donna Lee Davidson interviewed composer and Harvard professor Jessie Cox on sound, silence, and Black lives. “Erasure is claimed by anti-Blackness to be before, and this is how I started seeing the notion of how existence is taught.” —Jessie Cox tinyurl.com/vx73tzae