TOMORROW I MAY BE FAR AWAY

LARA DOWNES and RITA DOVE

Hailed for her “luscious, moody, and dreamy” playing by the New York Times, pianist Lara Downes is equally celebrated as a musical innovator and cultural investigator. In this collaboration with Pulitzer-winning poet Rita Dove, she presents a kaleidoscopic evening of music and poetry inspired by myriad stories of migration and transformation.

Directed by Mindy Cooper

Projection Design: Ian Wallace

PROGRAM

TOMORROW I MAY BE FAR AWAY

Edith North Johnson / Nathaniel Dett: Tomorrow I May Be Far Away 

RECURRING DREAMS 

J.S. Bach/arr Friedman: Sleepers Awake

H.T. Burleigh: My Lord, What A Mornin’

Angelica Negrón: Sueño Recurrente

Margaret Bonds: Troubled Water

Billy Taylor: I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free

IMAGINE YOU WAKE UP WITH A SECOND CHANCE 

Shawn Okpebholo: Amazing Grace / Rita Dove: Say Grace

Florence Price: Sketches in Sepia / Rita Dove: Sunday Greens

deVon Russell Gray: Even Your Tears / Rita Dove: Gospel

James Reese Europe: Goodnight Angeline / Rita Dove: The Return of Lieutenant James Reese Europe

Eubie Blake: Love Will Find A Way / Rita Dove: American Smooth

Rita Dove: Family Reunion

Quinn Mason: The Never-Ending River of Identity / Rita Dove: Exit

William Grant Still: Summerland / Rita Dove: Dawn Revisited

PROMISE 

Duke Ellington: New World A-Comin’

Clarice Assad: A World Of Change

Sam Cooke: A Change is Gonna Come

CODA

Margaret Bonds: Credo #2; I Believe / Rita Dove: Testimonial

AMERICAN SMOOTH (Live at Washington Performing Arts, November 2021)

Tomorrow I May Be Far Away premiered as a presentation of Washington Performing Arts in November 2021.