NICK & PALAVER STRINGS PERFORM 'A CHANGE IS GONNA COME' AT TANGLEWOOD

PALAVER STRINGS INSPIRE CHANGE

“Palaver Strings collaborated with tenor Nicholas Phan and vocalist/composer Farayi Malek in “A Change is Gonna Come” on Friday afternoon at Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning. Founded in 2014 and based in Portland, Maine, Palaver Strings is a player-led string ensemble determined to bring change through music. They devoted Saturday’s concert to protest songs and music…Many of us got choked-up, partly through nostalgia for our protest days, but also through rekindled faith.

Protest songs are important everywhere and always, but they have a special power in a representative democracy where citizens participate in shaping policies through a number of means including voting. In order to inspire us and raise our consciousness – “to make us see what we don’t see” ― “A Change is Gonna Come”  proceeded through anti-war songs, anti-racism songs and music, concluding with labor songs. Nicholas Phan lent his remarkable tenor and visibly committed heart to three anti-war songs, including a memorable version of Pete Seeger’s well-known “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” with snippets of beautifully played Mahler, Prokofiev and Shostakovich inserted between the stanzas (arrangement by Salerni.)

The section protesting racism began with two songs composed by Errollyn Wallen to commissions for the Palaver Strings…Phan interpreted them with both force and delicacy, shaping the music in close fusion with the instruments and nicely emphasizing Wallen’s key message of unifying hearts through his intense engagement...

…Finally, on labor protest songs. Phan joined the Strings in a Salerni arrangement of Roberta Slavitt’s “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle,” giving it a hymn-like character that reminded us of the religious roots of protest music. Phan’s dialogical performance of “Joe Hill” moved us deeply, once again in a handsome and improvisatory-feeling arrangement by Salerni. Malek closed with a powerful yet tender rendition of the classic Sam Cooke’s gospel-imbued “A Change is Gonna Come.” When she ringingly proclaimed “I was born on the River,” a great hush fell upon Tanglewood – and the magnificent oak tree that stands beyond the glass panes of Linde Hall Studio E shimmered in the sun and wind, agreeing with all of its sap and branches that yes, we all believe that change is gonna come.”

– The Boston Musical Intelligencer